The Black Vault

The level of radiation that nuclear reactors can produce is staggering. That's what makes them good at heating water. It takes a lot of shielding to protect people from that. Even a reactor that is "shut down" produces a good amount of radiation for weeks. The fuel cells continue to make heat almost indefinitely. If they are kept cool then no problem. But if they are not kept cool they will heat up and keep on heating up until they melt and then you could have concentration of the fuel, which then could cause an explosion or do the China Syndrome thing.

Along the way, if nuclear material is spread around, by explosions or leaking primary coolant from the reactor, then you have another problem. Everything that water touches becomes contaminated and it can spread radiation even further.

Scientists are already detecting increased Iodine-131 levels on both coasts in the US. You can run but you can't hide. Its here.

The only thing that suits do is protect you from contamination, not radiation.

Yeah I'm beginning to sprout a sixth toe on my right foot!

WHO did you say you were again? Me--gee--I've never been so scared in my life!

Cole

Brave words sitting in your living room. You never see the Neutron that gets you. Talk to someone dying from radiation poisoning or cancer caused by radiation exposure and we'll see how brave you are.

We are watching this with rapt attention and sometimes going upstairs to check with the engineers to see if they are getting anything through their pipeline. For the most part it has been nothing more than what is also in the news. And much of the news has been chaos and fright techniques at the expense of the public to sell copy/ratings. The difference being that as nukes we know or are familiar with certain aspects of it from first hand experience. We know what it is with which they are dealing..radiation and contamination both.

Those guys working there are showing tremendous courage. Unlike the workers at Chernobyl..they have to know what they are being asked to do....what is at stake.....as well as the price to be paid. I salute them their courage. I am not for certain that I would have the courage to do that which they are doing. Ive been in dangerous situations before but getting burned out and the slow, miserable, but steady death is a different kind of thing.

One of the other co workers told me the other night that the workers are getting their annual dose in about 15 minutes of exposure. Some of them have to be very ill or showing effects by now.

As I recall..Navy exposure standards are

5 Rem per year
3 Rem per quarter.

And they are getting something in this area in 15 minutes??!! Wow.

We suspected from the start when this began to break that they had serious problems. Within a couple of days we knew they were in real big trouble. Like Chernobyl...there will be tons of paperwork and studies generated within the industry..science and politics.

The films of what happened at Three Mile Island and also at Chernobyl are standard training here. Now there will be a third film when this settles down.

Nonetheless..I salute the courage of those workers going into the site and trying to get it under control.


CodeBlackv2 ,

Reading your posts ...are you Navy, ex Navy?? Have you been to prototype?? Nuke??


Thanks,
Orangetom

Nonetheless..I salute the courage of those workers going into the site and trying to get it under control

ditto to that..they should go down in history..I hope they and their families are WELL compensated for this

CodeBlackv2 wrote:Brave words sitting in your living room. You never see the Neutron that gets you. Talk to someone dying from radiation poisoning or cancer caused by radiation exposure and we'll see how brave you are.

Go the F away you little fear mongering punk. If I had anything to say about it you'd be banned--period.

You know ZERO about radiation and the affects thereof--being BRAVE has absolutely nothing to do about anything--or with anything---BRAVE are those trying to stabilize the situation at hand despite KNOWING the risk at ahead ahead of time.

People like you need to be banished from the face of the earth--you do nothing except spew venom of absolute ignorance.

Why don't you tell everyone your qualifications in regard to radiation, better yet stick to water--what's in your tap water down there in Texas? How about the air your Fellow Texans breath everyday in Houston or say--those in the Eagle Oil/Shale play--you know everyday folks living next to Oil and Gas well heads--

Come on DR Doom---thrill me!

Cole

BeJeebus keristo!

'Samamatter Cole????????????????

Did CB wee wee in your wheatabix bowl???????????? Did you two just get a divorce or sum'tin?

Fearmongering eh? Well I'd say he was more like being realistic. The word fearmongering is used incorrectly in this situation.

Humans are amazing creatures. The intelligent ones who can adapt survive and thrive. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger.

Yeahhhhhhh!

Anyway, to cut a long story (which I'm still sorting out) - short:-

Well *ahem* I have some bad news and some good news.

The bad news is that a whole lot of you are going to inconvenienced, sickened and killed due to the results of Fukushima nuke plant melting down.

The good news is that you won't officially be dying or inconvenienced or sickened due to the level of radiation being considered dangerously high by EPA standards. It'll be because of something else - y'know - your cheap toothpaste or a special new kind of cancer from masturbatory insufficiency.

How are THEY going to hide it from now? Now a few weeks have passed the bodies liberated of life (highly overrated, isn't it) - will start to be piling up. How long can they conceal the true danger to people living not just in the near vicinity? How can they hide it from those people living in Tokyo?

In Tokyo one day the water is dangerously radioactive so don't drink it and certainly don't use it for powder milk for babies. The next day it's OK. But they've raised the tolerated levels to reflect the increase in radiation around. Tokyo people don't drink the water and I would expect a lot of them are doing without a shower or a bath as well.

Bottled water is hard to find anywhere in Japan because it's all being sent up to Tokyo. How can anyone in their right mind want to stay there? Just a change in the wind can bring a load of radioactive particulates from the North. Plutonium may be amongst those particulates. One millionth of a gramme and that's it! Tokyo Roulette? Yo can wash it off your skin and you can leave your outdoor garments at the entrance. But if a speck so small you can't see it gets into a tear duct or a mucus membrane then in the case of plutonium the area around it will die very quickly. Swallow it and your insides will be turning black and the putrid gunk will be coming out of your existing holes and will soon make more.

If it's just radioactive water (tritium) then the damage will not be so great providing you can get off the tritium water and have a few months rehabilitation while your body tries to repair your wrecked and scarred digestive tract.

In Tsjerbobyl there are still workers alive who were amongst the crew who dug the tunnel underneath the reactor. Nearly all of them died. But there are a few isolated cases where despite the odds, men survived apparently unscathed from very high levels of radioactive contamination. All of the 600 heli pilots died from the rdiation above Tsjernobyl.

It's a bit of a game-changer now that plutonium is mixed into the equation.

Any bright ideas for neutralising radioactive isotopes? Well hurry up.

orangetom: I've been all the way to hell and back. You can tell from my comments below.

Cole: Lets see how much you know about radiation. What does Macroscopic Cross Section of Absorption mean? What are the 3 types of photon interactions with atoms? Which penetrates the skin further, Beta or Gamma? What amount of radiation exposure, in REM, results in blood changes? In a reactor, what does the Reflector do? How many inches of lead shielding does it take to attenuate a field of 2000 REM down to a safe level (say < 10 mREM)? What is the name of the element used to poison a reactor in an emergency (like Fukishima)? Why is Sodium Phosphate added to primary coolant? I had radiation knowledge drilled into my head 24 hours a day for 6 years.

So I gather that this "radiation" thing...it's bad?

at1with0 wrote:So I gather that this "radiation" thing...it's bad?

Only a lot.