Japan hit by powerful earthquake

[Kryssan]

Did I understand right? The risk for thyroid cancer might go up by as much as 70% for the infants in fukushima?

Lifetime attributable risks for thyroid cancer in female infants in the most affected areas ( aged 1 at time of exposure ) have an increase with an upper bound of 70%, yes. That raises the normal LAR from 0.75% to ~1.25% ( I've seen this number reported elsewhere as 1.35% ), as noted in the text above.

The WHO report includes three subsets of data; one that evaluates cancer risk over a 15 year period from the accident ( males / females aged 1, 10, 20 - the most 'sensitive' in and out of Japan ), another that analyzes for predicted LAR changes ( but only in areas most affected ), and another for the workers at the site.

Really, I'd recommend just reading the whole WHO report so you have a context for the data; if you don't have the time or the caring to read the whole thing but still want something out of it then just skip to page 92 and read section 8. Also noted above, the final UNSCEAR report will be available in October ( supposedly ) for further reading.

[Salodin]

Ohhh Ok I saw that as going from under 1% to 70%, not the total only going up by 70%. I went ahead and picked my jaw up from the floor. Thanks, lol.

[Tagus]

ruh roh


http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/radioac...arrier-5526072

[myreality]

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-radioac...e-leakage-710/

Another tank with highly radioactive water at the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant has leaked, reported operator TEPCO. The contaminated water contains an unprecedented 80 million Becquerels of radiation per liter. The norm is a mere 150 Bq.

Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on the Fukushima leak emergency

A spokesman for the Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Tuesday that 300 tons of highly radioactive water has leaked from a stainless steel tank on the territory of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority has classified the leak as a Level One incident, the second lowest on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES) for radiological releases, a spokesman informed Reuters.

The incident is the first Level One since the actual catastrophe at Fukushima in March 2011 when Japanese authorities issued an INES rating.

Level One means that the incident is classified as anomalous situation that exceeds limits of safe functioning of an installation. The most dangerous, Level Seven, has only been applied twice: for the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986 and the meltdown of three reactors at Fukushima plant itself.

[Silenka]

Poor Fukushima. I don't really understand reactors that well - why haven't they been able to get it under control after all this time? In layman's terms XD

[Tagus]

In layman's terms? Because its dangerous to deal with, so there are limits on what you can send people in to do. Because the half lives are long as hell so you can't wait for it to decay on its own. Because its a contaminant in liquid so it essentially goes wherever the liquid flows (I.e. - underground, water supplies, the ocean etc.). And because the nuclear community wants to pretend its all safe so they can continue business as usual, so they hesitated to take bold action at the beginning. This is still considered a Japanese disaster vs. a worldwide one, which is rediculous in my opinion.

[Cantih]

And because the nuclear community wants to pretend its all safe so they can continue business as usual, so they hesitated to take bold action at the beginning.

Not the case.

The world nuclear community takes it seriously, and assume any member does as well. Damn near globally it's drilled into nukes heads that this is serious shit you're working with, do not fuck around, and so you assume your compatriots anywhere else in the world are going to act the same as you.

Not enough people understand the sheer power of face in Japanese society, especially when it comes to organizations, where it's even stronger than the concept works with a single person.
Most would assume that with a nuclear issue, the authorities would go "fuck face, lets get a handle on this shit". And that's why the world nuclear community trusted what was coming out of Japan. But face was winning over facts, and here we are now.

[Kryssan]

Poor Fukushima. I don't really understand reactors that well - why haven't they been able to get it under control after all this time? In layman's terms XD

The reactors themselves aren't the forefront problem anymore. So long as they continue to provide cooling to the piles and can make progress on diversion and sealant, the reactors will be fine. They're having issues with containment, which honestly doesn't make much sense from my point of view / with the now limited access to information I have. This should be the basics that they keep having problems with.


The 'problem' by now should be limited to breech damage, but unfortunately they continue to have issues all over. The basement / trench / groundwater problem should be the most predominant concern, yet instead they're fighting 'fires' ( figuratively speaking, in case the quotes don't cover it ) across the board with actions and systems that were established following the earthquake / tsunami. I don't have any updated information to offer since I'm not in the field anymore ( for over a year now ), but the leaks ( from the containment measures, not from the reactor containment which were damaged and have been leaking since the beginning ) have been a problem since IIRC the 4th month.

Everything from the temporary separation rigs they set up to the cooling loops to the water that was initially used during the fill sequences by those at the plant ( but was undergoing treatment for separation and reuse in the reactors - I think that particular spill was like Dec 2011? ).

And because the nuclear community wants to pretend its all safe so they can continue business as usual, so they hesitated to take bold action at the beginning. This is still considered a Japanese disaster vs. a worldwide one, which is rediculous in my opinion.

I don't know why you continue to feel that way. Because you don't hear about it in the news? The American News, I should say, the JP news has articles on Fukushima regularly. You should know better, though - America's "concerns" from a worldwide standpoint are quite limited.

Within four weeks of Fukushima every reactor ECC in the US, and many across the world, were in 24/7 communication with Fukushima. With the information / hindsight we have now, we know the mistakes made by the operators at the plant, and the conflagration that was TEPCO and the local government; as well as the misuse of available resources ( ex. SPEEDI ).

However, as to the rest of the world? They had remained in communication until the time I left. Our facilities were asking for volunteers to go help and sending people over to do just that. The nuclear job boards continue to have postings for Fukushima relief managers / support teams. What else do you want them to do? Fix the problem by throwing even more people at it? Have some other government come in and try to take control / direction from the JP? I'm sure that'll go over well...

[archibaldcrane]

Um, how is this a worldwide disaster again? lol

[Tagus]

Hate to break it to you Arch, but we share an ocean with them.

[Correction]

rediculous

[archibaldcrane]

Hate to break it to you Arch, but we share an ocean with them.

fucking lol

Erm, no, I totally agree, this has been disastrous for the entire western seaboard. Totally. I mean countless people have been affected - I can't even count them that's how countless they are!

[Salodin]

Didn't we have advisories about fish from that ocean for awhile, because of the higher amount of something or other in them? I don't even know if we care about that any more, but I'm p.sure it was talked about for awhile.

[Tagus]

Yeah there were warnings against eating tuna and sushi some time back. So here's the deal (and feel free to correct me, but this is my understanding)... There are 350 storage tanks filled with radioactive shit that they can't figure out what to do with. They were built with rubber seals because welding them would take longer. The rubber was expected to last at least 5 years. One of these 350 tanks is leaking, and is approximately 1/3 empty. The measured level of radioactivity lost is 13,800,000,000 Bq of Cesium-134, and 30,000,000,000 Bq of Cesium 137. However, that info was gathered from measuring devices that go no more than 16 M underground. Tepco has announced that they are building an underground wall in the mountainside of the plant, and paving the seaside, but due to unusually heavy rains this summer they are having difficulty keeping up with the groundwater level. They have said there is little more that they can do. There have been several landslides in the area of Fukushima due to heavy rains, and it is now Typhoon season. So....... yeah.

[Psion]

That sounds like a lot, but there is roughly 187 quintillion gallons of water in the Pacific ocean alone. that's 187,000,000,000,000,000,000 gallons. I can't say I'm terribly worried considering 30 billion divided by 187 quintillion is roughly 0.00000000016. Seeing as how all the oceans are technically connected too, I'm not seeing much of a threat here except perhaps local fish. I'm not radiation expert though. (I leave that to Kryssan.)

[shidobu]

so... how long till godzilla ? or ninja turtles... ill take both

[Tagus]

No, that's the amount that has supposedly been leaking every day... not the total since the incident.

[Salodin]

Is it correct to assume that not all of it goes into the ocean? Wouldn't some of it work it's way into ground water and soil and contaminate that?

Or is this plant built on a cliff and all run off falls into the poor pacific?

[Tagus]

Yeah, you'd think that. Apparently their numbers are estimates based on the assumption that it is floating in seawater instead of accumulating in the marine sediment. Much of it has also worked it's way into the ground water, and is surfacing to the north due to heavy rains. It leaked out of a local dam and accumulated near a radio tower, however Tepco states that it "probably didn't reach the sea." The radioactive concentration of this area has not been announced.

[BaneTheBrawler]

should hire a Faceless Man to go assassinate people until its fixed.