Philosophy Now Forum

http://readersupportednews.org/news-sec ... n-exposure

I have watched this horror non stop. I haven't posted anything because I just can't believe it...surreal. I can't wrap my head around this much devastation and suffering.

About the nuclear reactors. Can anyone explain the worst case scenario of a melt down? How devastating can this be? I have read everything I can get my hands on but it doesn't say much about disasters such as these. I don't know anything about how radiation works in that respect. It seems to me that saying there is not that much radiation and it's not that harmful is an understatement. I thought radiation doesn't go away for years. Now they say that everything will be fine if they cool it down? It seems to me as if it's all a lie. But perhaps I am not understanding it right.

How do they figure this:

"Japanese nuclear safety officials and international experts said that because of crucial design differences, the release of radiation at Daiichi would most likely be much smaller than at Chernobyl even if the plant had a complete core meltdown, which they said it had not."

It seems to me it's already worse being as there are so many failures. More melt downs mean more radiation and devastation...right? Why are they trying to sugar coat this? Why are they not telling these people to at least try to get out? "Put a towel over your face?" wtf is that about?!

AS you may wish to read: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andr ... _meltdown/

It has further links that may interest you and Mr Bolt is fantastic reading although often Australian in context.

I think the article downplays how dangerous cesium 137 can be: "A very small amount of Cesium was released, as well as Iodine. If you were sitting on top of the plants’ chimney when they were venting, you should probably give up smoking to return to your former life expectancy."

I guess the key here is how small the "very small amount" actually is. While not as "nasty" as uranium, cesium 137 has a half-life of about 30 years, which is plenty in human terms.

Wootah wrote:AS you may wish to read: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andr ... _meltdown/

It has further links that may interest you and Mr Bolt is fantastic reading although often Australian in context.

Thank you for trying to ease my fears Wootah but I am with Novacka on this one. I think the officials are deliberately trying to downplay the hazard. I have read that 3 people have severe radiation sickness and others have "mild" traces on their clothing. Also, 100 miles offshore American Navy ships encountered higher levels of radiation and moved their ships to another location.

I just want to know the truth. I fear we are being fed propaganda by the people who profit from nuclear energy. If it is as safe as they say it is..I want to see all the CEO's from Tokyo energy take a publicized tour of the plant today. To show what a good sport I am...I will even allow them to wear a leaded suit. What? Surely with a leaded suit they would be safe? They should use this as a photo op in order to "sell" the public on the safety of nuclear melt down.

'in an age of negative death drive' (Justin Lee Stansfield)

it is so sad and horrible, and i hate to say this, but what if it was HAARP? and if it was, what could i do?

I think indeed that Chernobyl is the worst that has the possibility to happen and that we are now seeing nuclear power plants that has a much more efficient safety/security policy and that the amounts of radioactive material (beyond what is merely present in the reactors) is nicely controlled so that it has little or NO chance to contribute to any meltdown! Thus Geenpeace nuclear power paranoia is thwarted for all future to come!

[Edit, unsp.:] It should also be noted that I have information from a VERY informing Discovery documentary of the Chernobyl accident some time ago. I've also seen other documentaries both before and after, but with higher "emotional" content!

[Edit2, unsp.:] I've added "...(beyond what is...)..." for separating reactive content in direct danger and the reactive content in indirect danger, but possibly contributing to any meltdown.

Cheers!

artisticsolution wrote:

Wootah wrote:AS you may wish to read: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andr ... _meltdown/

It has further links that may interest you and Mr Bolt is fantastic reading although often Australian in context.

Thank you for trying to ease my fears Wootah but I am with Novacka on this one. I think the officials are deliberately trying to downplay the hazard. I have read that 3 people have severe radiation sickness and others have "mild" traces on their clothing. Also, 100 miles offshore American Navy ships encountered higher levels of radiation and moved their ships to another location.

I just want to know the truth. I fear we are being fed propaganda by the people who profit from nuclear energy. If it is as safe as they say it is..I want to see all the CEO's from Tokyo energy take a publicized tour of the plant today. To show what a good sport I am...I will even allow them to wear a leaded suit. What? Surely with a leaded suit they would be safe? They should use this as a photo op in order to "sell" the public on the safety of nuclear melt down.

That's ok. I'll keep trying. To my knowledge the radiation being emitted from the reactors is still well within normal and safe parameters.

Also worth noting is how man's technology saved lives.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andr ... he_sleeps/

Apart from the crisis as such and rather a nuclear technology question: does anyone know whether it's right to lift the radioactive material out of the water or if it's the right thing to submerge the radioactive material with water/seawater? I may think they may be doing the wrong thing, that the right procedure is to get the rods/radioactive material out of water, either carefully one "section" at the time or several at once! What do you think? (Are the Japanese technicians out of their minds?) (Not that I accuse them as such.) It turns out the Japanese have been following conventional emergency procedures in this crisis with these nuclear reactors which is good. I suspect that Nuclear Power as such has proven a decent face despite being hit hard by disaster of a major tsunami by an 8,9 Richter's earthquake outside the coast of Japan.

[Edit:] This is in context with a Discovery documentary on Chernobyl and this information from Japan that they flood the rods with water/seawater. Should the future rather be Pellet-nuclear reactors for nuclear power? I also like to remind people that France hasn't had a single severe accident with their nuclear power plants. Analogy: Norway hasn't had a single (very) severe oil related accident despite its off-shore technology and in contrast to the recent BP disaster in The Gulf of Mexico. Finally, it may also be that the Japanese technicians want to burn out the radioactive fuel left in the reactors possibly being also a kind of a rational procedure in the face of immediate disaster, left with no other good alternatives... Concerning "pellet based nuclear power", South Africa has two of this type!
(You can perhaps consider the Alexander Kielland disaster, but this was a construction failure, not an operating failure.)
(You can also include the Bravo blowout on the Ekofisk complex by Phillips Petroleum, but this was in the 70s (1977) and not within the latest 30 years when industry standards have been firmly laid down.)

[Edit2, 15.03.2011:]
Japanese legal level of radiation: 0,5 Sv (1 Sv causes nausea) On radiation SI-units again: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSv.

I realise that the method of the Japanese at the Fukushima plant has been named "Feed and Bleed" by some of the media!
[End of edit.]

[Edit, 15.03.2011:] I withdraw on every allegation of Japanese "insanity" with the nuclear plant operators. They've been doing well!

[Edit3, 15.03.2011:] Added note on the Bravo blowout in 1977.

Cheers!

Thanks Bondi, I had never heard of HAARP before. The truth is there is little we can do. We allowed these entities to have too much power and now they can do what they want when they want. They call the shots. Deregulate all the way to hell. What really baffles me is...it's their world too. Their lives are in jeopardy too. What good is money when you're dead?

Wootah, Do you still trust these guys? Read this...you may change your mind:


http://www.truth-out.org/tokyo-electric ... ators68457

http://bradkerrgreen.com/total-nuclear- ... -aljazeera

This is terrifying enough..still....I keep thinking about the fact that there are only 50 people left at the site who are trying to keep the water levels up and stop a total melt down. How are they going to survive? They say we have lost telephone contact with them. What if the worst comes true and no one is manning the stations? I don't know how radiation works but
isn't it inevitable that these braves workers will parish if they can't get out or can't get food or water? What happens then?

Also...what happens if the radioactive material eats through the earths crust and meets the core? Excuse me for my ignorance...but could it start an explosion? Scary ass thoughts for this person who fears the unknown.

I have two new inquiries today: what happens when you "pull" out a rod/radioactive material out of the "bath"? And to what degree can the container room/vessel room take any increased heat in case there is such heat from pulling out the radioactive material? Any operating manual, anyone, please? It may be that one may have just switched of the electrical power to the reactors, emptying the "baths"/vessels and let the vessels take the (rel. little) heat from this process, even enduring the "remains" to meltdown on the bottom of the vessels. That is, if such a "small" meltdown, having no (major) reaction possibility, can be endured, that is off with the tops and in with new vessels after having been "used" for one "controlled" meltdown. What do you think?

Hence shutdowns/"controlled" meltdowns in the event of the Kobe quake or any such thereof. Investigate? Yes! I'm now also waiting for the aftermath.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobe_earthquake

Operating manuals:
http://www.reak.bme.hu/Wigner_Course/Wi ... ERCISE.htm
http://pdfcast.org/pdf/nuclear-power-pl ... -operation
(more?)

I don't understand your whole post Aetixintro. What do you mean.

I did have a thought about fixing a total meltdown...they said if there was a total meltdown it would take 24 hours to go through the concrete floor...well what if they drilled a hole from the ocean floor under the radioactive material that allowed seawater to flood in? Hopefully cooling it down so it didn't rapidly descend to the core? Maybe that would give us enough time to come up with more solutions? But then again...I don't know anything about radioactivity or horizontal drilling.

Thank you. We'll see what the experts say! Are you following this crazy Japanese drama too? Please follow CNN, BBC and all other media. (But not too much or you grow fisheyes... )

Aetixintro wrote:Thank you. We'll see what the experts say! Are you following this crazy Japanese drama too? Please follow CNN, BBC and all other media. (But not too much or you grow fisheyes... )

I will always have "fisheyes". I hate not knowing. And I hate that people who do know won't tell the truth about what they know like the 'experts' are doing now.