japanese snow job

[spanone]

from nbc nightly news

'all the experts insist the effects will be minimal'

video here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42296188#42296188


meanwhile: Radiation levels at Japan nuclear plant reach new highs

TOKYO — Already-grave conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant worsened Sunday with the highest radiation readings yet, compounding both the risks and challenges for workers trying to repair the facility’s cooling system.

Leaked water sampled from one unit Sunday was 100,000 times more radioactive than normal background levels — though the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, first calculated an even higher, erroneous, figure that it didn’t correct for several hours.

Tepco apologized Sunday night when it realized the mistake; it had initially reported radiation levels in the leaked water from the unit 2 reactor as being 10 million times higher than normal, which prompted an evacuation of the building.

After the levels were correctly measured, airborne radioactivity in the unit 2 turbine building still remained so high — 1,000 millisieverts per hour — that a worker there would reach his yearly occupational exposure limit in 15 minutes. A dose of 4,000 to 5,000 millisieverts absorbed fairly rapidly will eventually kill about half of those exposed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/radiation-levels-reach-new-highs-as-conditions-worsen-for-workers/2011/03/27/AFsMLFiB_print.html

[uppityperson]

1. Even after correctly measured, they still seem obscenely high for the workers there

"After the levels were correctly measured, airborne radioactivity in the unit 2 turbine building still remained so high — 1,000 millisieverts per hour — that a worker there would reach his yearly occupational exposure limit in 15 minutes. A dose of 4,000 to 5,000 millisieverts absorbed fairly rapidly will eventually kill about half of those exposed."

If it is 1,000 millisieverts an hour, and 4000-5000 "absorbed fairly rapidly will eventually kill about half of those exposed"? Does this mean those who work in that situation for more than a couple hours will absorb enough to kill half of them?

[spanone]

2. this is an ongoing crisis....how can the experts INSIST effects will be minimal???/

this only takes away from their credibility to me......

[PCIntern]

4. the same way they 'insisted' that cigarette smoking cannot

be linked to CANCER.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

16. swish

[reorg]

7. yes, and the rest will be seriously ill

but it's a great relief that 1 Sv per hour is only measured in the air. Obviously, the workers just have to stay under water.

[uppityperson]

9. I have a vague memory of Chernobyl workers being able to work for only a short time and

then that was it, forever, for them, to never be able to be around radiation again. Looking just at these numbers, I don't see how the workers can be in there for longer than a couple hours.

[reorg]

13. the Japanese government recently raised the dose allowed for workers

from 100 mSv to 250 mSv. So, at the current level of 1 Sv per hour, only yet uncontaminated workers can go in and stay for 10 minutes in the building before they have to leave for good. Hoping that 250 mSv don't cause any harm. I don't see how they are going to do any repair work under these circumstances, unless robots are used.

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Now TEPCO and the government want to raise the allowable radiation limits..yikes.

Last week Hirose Takashi, a researcher at the Aomori Prefectural Industrial Research Institute and a man who has written extensively on nuclear power went on Japanese TV to point out the lies that are being told about the supposed safety of this radiation.

“They are saying stupid things like, why, we are exposed to radiation all the time in our daily life, we get radiation from outer space. But that’s one millisievert per year. A year has 365 days, a day has 24 hours; multiply 365 by 24, you get 8760. Multiply the 400 millisieverts by that, you get 3,500,000 the normal dose. You call that safe?”

Many are now expressing concern that the Japanese government’s moves to quietly raise legal radiation limits in a number of areas indicates a tacit acknowledgement that increased radiation exposure will continue to be a daily reality for residents of Japan for the foreseeable future.

On March 17th, the government raised the radiation exposure limits for emergency workers at the Fukushima plant from 100 millisieverts to 250 millisieverts.

On March 22nd, the government announced that they were raising the bar for access to decontamination from 6,000 counts per minute to 100,000 counts per minute.

And now the International Commission on Radiological Protection is recommending that the Japanese government raise allowable radiation exposure limits for the general public from 1 millisievert per year to 100 millisieverts per year, not because the fundamental laws of physics and human biology have changed, but to stop people from moving out of the effected areas.

http://www.corbettreport.com/sunday-update-20110327/

[SpoonFed]

19. The battle of Chernobyl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiCXb1Nhd1o

[caraher]

18. That's right

Nobody can go and work in that environment for a few hours except as a suicide mission. I doubt they let anyone into that area while the readings are this high.

[flamingdem]

3. Check greenpeace.org - the sent people and just reported readings

Very high at cities near the plant and people should be evacuated.

[PCIntern]

6. "It's only a flesh-wound!!"

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT-W1RvXtj2Bbw8brLGhNeEKZxAwRop78DnRVzzCp6x-q6KiB05

[flamingdem]

8. Ha ha, Monty P! nt

[uppityperson]

10. While I appreciate a lot of what Greenpeace has done over the yrs, I don't trust them

Of course I don't trust TEMCO (or whatever the acronym is) either.

[Junkdrawer]

5. Imagine the cost if today's Evacuation Zone is tomorrow's Permanent Relocation Zone.

I think this is a major reason the Japanese government has been reluctant to extend the evacuation:

Atomic Cleanup Cost Goes to Japan's Taxpayers, May Spur Liability Shift

Japan’s taxpayer, not the nuclear industry or insurers, will cover most of the cleanup cost from the worst accident since Chernobyl, a financial rescue that may spur moves by nations to make companies assume more liability.

Tokyo Electric Power Co., in its 13th day fighting to avert a meltdown at its Fukushima plant 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Tokyo, at most is required to cover third-party damages of 120 billion yen ($2.1 billion) under Japanese law. Should the government declare the magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami that flooded its reactors an “exceptional” act of God, the utility may be off the hook in paying compensation that may be demanded by injured workers, farmers and shareholders.

...

The Japanese government may pay as much as 1 trillion yen to compensate businesses and individuals for damages from the nuclear accident, or eight times the maximum cost for Tokyo Electric, the Tokyo Shimbun reported on March 12, without saying where it got the information

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-23/nuclear-cleanup-cost-goes-to-japan-s-taxpayers-may-spur-liability-shift.html

[Marblehead]

11. they

didn't show the reactors that where damaged, they showed them before the huge explosions. MSNBC owned by the corp that built the reactors.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

12. Just like the "experts" (AKA corporate shills) told us that the Deepwater Horizon

wouldn't amount to much more than a temporary distraction. I wonder what the nuclear version of the magical oil eating bacteria will be?

GE....we bring good things to life...by cutting corners and destroying other life.

[DainBramaged]

14. the Japanese government lied to the World, they are overwhelmed by the disaster

and the thread was basically ignored


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x683914

[spanone]

15. i can understand the overwhelming of the government, the tsunami alone is overwhelming

it only ads insult to injury to to be less than truthful