Japanese tsunami disaster discussion

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Peter-Jan said:
If the fuel bars melt ("melt down") that would be a radio-active disaster, not only for Japan but for the East Coast of North and Latin American as well.
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Although there is probably a meltdown currently happening inside the reactors, this statment sounds like non-sense. I would say it's like spreading fear. Don't get me wrong, there is going to be a real radioactive disaster if radioactive gases escape to the outside. However, I don't know how high is the probability of the radioactive cloud to reach all the way across the Pacific to North and South America. I also don't know how long is the half-life of the radioactive elements that are going to be part of this cloud but I could guess the half live is not long enough for the elements to reach America.

As an interesting note, when Chernovyl happened, my dad was in Kiev. There are only around 60 miles between Chernovyl and Kiev. The effects were minimal. There are more than 5000 miles between Japan and California... draw your own conclusions.

BTW, if I had a way to "dislike" your post, I would have done it. Spreading fear is not very constructive.
 
Let me clarify, I just was summarizing what I heard about it on the news. There's no intent to spread fear, no reason to panic, I'm not an expert, etcetera.

Here's the link in dutch about the safety procedures: http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.981952
(The topic of the video is "What happens exactly in case of a "melt down"?" You can see them describe the points I listed in the same chronological order.)

Here's an interview describing (and showing around the 2 minute mark) how the wind currently blows to the US West Coast: http://www.deredactie.be/permalink/1.982123

To be clear: They are saying that currently (i.e. no melt down) the amount of radio-activity that hits the US West Coast is very low, and it's "good news" as it's way less damaging than if the wind would blow it to Tokyo without the chance to get filtered down over the ocean.

The point about ambassadors moving was from a Dutch article. No video about that.
 
The backup generators stopped working after 50 mins because of the tsunami. Japan was prepared for earthquakes but not quakes immediately followed by a tsunami
 
It also depends on the direction of wind. Fortunately it is blowing towards the ocean spreading the radioactive elements into air. If the direction changes then it might go towards Asia.
 
Even if the wind doesn’t change direction, most of the radioactive material will be lost on the way by the time it reaches the west coast. The density will be a lot lower. Though, I did see on the news this morning that people in BC, Canada, had started stocking up on instant noodles and other types of packaged food…
 
Alain - low halflife elements are scarier than high halflife elements. Simple reason is that low halflife means more radioactivity per atom, less concentration needed for same effect.
 
Low half-life is definitely more dangerous but they won't put any part of america in danger.
 
How about the Chernobyl comparison? They say it is excluded but there are many atomic stations on the eastern coast of Japan.
 
alain said:
Low half-life is definitely more dangerous but they won't put any part of america in danger.
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idk man, shortest halflife is iodine-131 which is 8 days... you think 8 days isn't enough to cross the pacific via jetstream?

Also, the dosage of i-131 is tricky - it is more lethal in small doses than in large ones.
 
alain said:
Although there is probably a meltdown currently happening inside the reactors
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It is my understanding that the meltdown hasn't happened yet or at the very least is (very) partial (i.e. most but not all of the surface of the fuel bars covered/cooled with water).
 
The iodine isn't an issue, since administrations and organizations such as the WHO have issued reports not to buy iodine tablets.
 
Fukushima is now a level 6 (with 7 the highest level) nuclear accident after an explosion in reactor 2. Unlike previous explosions in reactor 1 and 3, the explosion in reactor 2 breached the hermetic cover meaning some radio-activity found its way out.

There's also or has been a fire in reactor 4 and internally the radio-activity is too high now for engineers to use the control chamber. They now work remotely.

For comparision: Tsjernobyl was level 7, Three Mile Island level 5. I have no idea of what exactly these levels mean or imply.
 
That's the dutch spelling, which I didn't realize was different than the English one Chernobyl.

Now I wonder what the Russians themselve write :D
 
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That's what he meant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Nuclear_Event_Scale
 
Peter-Jan said:
That's the dutch spelling, which I didn't realize was different than the English one Chernobyl.

Now I wonder what the Russians themselve write :D
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We pretended nothing happened. Seriously. The government didn't warn Citizens at all (yes, I am Russian.)
 
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