Fukushima Radiation

What's the deal? I feel like there are so many conflicting views on whether or not people (namely those on the Pacific Coast of the USA... where I live) have legitimate reasons to fear harmful effects of radiation from the Fukushima disaster.

I personally don't trust a lot if news outlets, let alone bloggers, etc. Some say to "be afraid". Others say "don't be afraid".

Any time someone try's to clear up some confusion, it gets more confusing.

Let's just figure it out on our own. Right guys?

I read a while back that the Japanese themselves don't have reason to fear the radiation from Fukushima and that they managed to get things under control before it got out of hand. When the disaster happened there were a bunch of old people that volunteered to go in and help with disaster relief, the reason being that they were old and they don't want their young being exposed to radiation and suffering for it in future, however it turned out that even the old folks won't have much to fear anyway. Found that story beautiful and inspirational, as it goes.

I'm afraid I don't have a source on that info as I read that over a year ago, so you can take that with a pinch of salt if you like. However I'm surprised that you mention about a risk on the pacific coast? Has this been a news story lately over there? If it were me I wouldn't take a story like that too seriously, more than likely blown out of proportion for political reasons.

Obviously I'm not an expert, just reciting what I read. I'm happy to be corrected, but my stance is "No worries mon".

  On 1/22/2014 at 10:55 AM, Obel said:

When the disaster happened there were a bunch of old people that volunteered to go in and help with disaster relief, the reason being that they were old and they don't want their young being exposed to radiation and suffering for it in future, however it turned out that even the old folks won't have much to fear anyway. Found that story beautiful and inspirational, as it goes.

I read about this too. amazing. I wouldn't have thought such a thing possible in conservative Eastern societies where older folks would consider themselves above sacrificing themselves for younger folks. certainly wouldn't have happened where I come from.

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Obviously I'm not an expert, just reciting what I read. I'm happy to be corrected, but my stance is "No worries mon".

same. it was obviously a disaster and sacrifices were made to contain it but I am not alarmed at this point in time. are people fearing long-term consequences? those can be hard to predict, from what I understand.

I don't see how the radiation from Fukushima could have any harmful effect on the people on the west coast of the US. Shit gets diluted in that huge thing called the Pacific ocean. Alarmist stuff because people have a poor understanding of radiation.

expect Godzilla

shit, I'm about to have a dental x-ray soon. I'll take sleeping with 100 persons over that anyday.

YOU GONNA GET CANCER AND DIE! RADIATION AND ATOMZ ARE DANGEROUS!!1

From Fav YouTube video thread. Doesn't answer the question but is very eery all together.

So if the dudes in the video spent 24 hours 1.5km from the nuclear plant they would get a little more radiation than they would get from a head CT scan. Scary stuff.

two interesting sources of information to cross reference, the first from a radiation detector supplier http://www.blackcatsystems.com/GM/safe_radiation.html

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Radiation from X-Rays and Medical TestsAccording to the American Nuclear Society, the following are the typical dose levels from various medical tests:

• Extremity (arm, leg, etc) Xray: 1 mrem
• Dental Xray: 1 mrem
• Chest Xray: 6 mrem
• Nuclear Medicine (thyroid scan): 14 mrem
• Neck/Skull Xray: 20 mrem
• Pelvis/Huip Xray: 65 mrem
• CAT Scan: 110 mrem
• Upper GI Xray: 245 mrem
• Barium Enema: 405 mrem

OK, so total them up. You'll probably end up with around 300 mrem a year, perhaps more, if you take a lot of airplane flights, or have a lot of medical x-rays or nuclear medicine procedures.

As you can see, the major source of your radiation dose rate is due to natural sources, radon, cosmic radiation, and terrestrial radiation. Man made sources of radiation are completely swamped by these natural sources in most cases.

The average total dose rate for the USA is 360 mrem a year. It has been estimated that your chance of dying from cancer increases 10% if you accumulate a total of 250,000 mrem. This would be over 3,000 mrem a year over 80 years, for example. This estimates presumably assume a linear risk factor between dose and the chance of getting cancer, and there are those who now dispute such assumptions, which means the risks from low levels of radiation may be overstated.

A single dose of around 450 R (450,000 mR) is usually considered produce death in 50% of the cases.

and the second a Greenpeace publication http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/multimedia/photo-essays/Shadowlands/

which has pictures of the actual readings from radiation detectors in the effected areas.

and finally one from MIT http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1994/safe-0105.html

PS according to google

why is there a discrepancy between the two geiger counters?

fukushima.bmpFetching info...

  On 1/22/2014 at 10:37 AM, J3FF3R00 said:

What's the deal? I feel like there are so many conflicting views on whether or not people (namely those on the Pacific Coast of the USA... where I live) have legitimate reasons to fear harmful effects of radiation from the Fukushima disaster.

 

I personally don't trust a lot if news outlets, let alone bloggers, etc. Some say to "be afraid". Others say "don't be afraid".

Any time someone try's to clear up some confusion, it gets more confusing.

Let's just figure it out on our own. Right guys?

the scariest thing to me is that corporations have become so goddam good at controlling the flow of media that I don't know if we'll ever really know about something dangerous to us all like nuclear fall-out hitting the west coast before it's essentially too late.

I grew up under the shadow and the national joke that was the Exxon Valdez oil spilll, the companies stocks took a huge dive, they were a cultural joke for almost a half decade, even the movie fucking Naked Gun has jokes about it. Their reputation was tarnished for many years. Now when we have an even worse oil spill courtesy of BP, we had to rely on bloggers and on the scene people with cellphones to film the oil sludge coming up onto Florida beaches, the mainstream media barely showed us that. BP's stocks were at record highs within something like 5 months after the well breach, and for whatever reason, probably how successfully they can massage the media, we've barely remembered it. It's like a blip compared to the amount of press coverage given to the Exxon valdez.

For me this is the scariest aspect of the modern era we live in, that large corporations can commit horrible crimes or cover up horrible accidents and the media will march in lock step behind their PR apparatus. And in Fukushima's case it's TEPCO and GE, GE owns MSNBC and NBC

so to fall on the side of 'its not a big deal, there is no danger' would be placing faith in the powerful entities that are in control of the situation, and at this point I don't think they deserve our faith.

  On 1/22/2014 at 2:18 PM, Terpentintollwut said:

 

From Fav YouTube video thread. Doesn't answer the question but is very eery all together.

*samples phat beat @2:30 made with 2 Geiger Counters beeping in unison*

Frankly I'm not paranoid enough to worry about the radiation from the other side of the international date line, but the earthquake and tsunami itself in eastern Japan back in March 2011 has more or less affected me on a personal level, as well as thousands of others, needless to say.

This is a pretty decent post debunking some of the more alarmist/shitty journalism out there re: fukushima reaching the US coast:

http://deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/

(author, Kim Martini, is a PhD / physical oceanographer)

  On 1/22/2014 at 7:27 PM, J3FF3R00 said:

 

  On 1/22/2014 at 2:18 PM, Terpentintollwut said:

 

From Fav YouTube video thread. Doesn't answer the question but is very eery all together.

*samples phat beat @2:30 made with 2 Geiger Counters beeping in unison*

 

*waits for EP to come out on raster noton*

  On 1/22/2014 at 8:57 PM, zkreso said:

 

  On 1/22/2014 at 7:27 PM, J3FF3R00 said:

 

  On 1/22/2014 at 2:18 PM, Terpentintollwut said:

 

From Fav YouTube video thread. Doesn't answer the question but is very eery all together.

*samples phat beat @2:30 made with 2 Geiger Counters beeping in unison*

 

 

*waits for EP to come out on raster noton*

 

*preorders!*

Japanese talking makes it extra trippy :D

someone needs to make an anime about vigilante super heros decapitating CEos of nuclear power companies, might help kick start a revolution there because so far the public seems to be more or less satisfied by Tepco's bullshit

  On 1/22/2014 at 9:11 PM, John Ehrlichman said:

someone needs to make an anime about vigilante super heros decapitating CEos of nuclear power companies, might help kick start a revolution there because so far the public seems to be more or less satisfied by Tepco's bullshit

Not sure if this was at all directed at my post or if anyone even read my post, but to be clear I think that (a) Tepco has committed an atrocity and (b) shitty buzzfeed level journalism misconstruing science to push copies/clickthrus is an evil in and of itself.

it wasn't directed at anybody, i just think the Japanese need a kick in the ass and actually start standing up for the human rights of their fellow citizenary.

I have no comment on the alarmist style Fukushima blogging, because regardless of that Fukushima continues to put radiation out into the atmosphere and into the ocean. This is not an alarmist view, it's a fact, we just don't know to what levels or how much danger this poses. That's the point to be argued about.

Edit: sorry, fucked up tapatalk posting, my bad.

Edit: I did it again what even is

  On 1/22/2014 at 8:26 PM, baph said:

This is a pretty decent post debunking some of the more alarmist/shitty journalism out there re: fukushima reaching the US coast:

 

http://deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiation-and-the-fukushima-disaster/

 

(author, Kim Martini, is a PhD / physical oceanographer)

lol @ "radioactive SPAGHATTA NADLES attacking Hawaii"

Plus anyone who's more worried about radiation reaching the US Pacific coast than all the lives claimed in the Tohoku earthquake need to get a fuckin' clue.

  On 1/22/2014 at 10:49 PM, ambermonk said:

 

Plus anyone who's more worried about radiation reaching the US Pacific coast than all the lives claimed in the Tohoku earthquake need to get a fuckin' clue.

 

well i think it's understandable that people are concerned for their own lives and the lives of loved ones. I know people who live in Japan and was concerned about them since day 1, but if shit really poses a danger to the west coast of the united states we need to start talking about it. And i don't mean being alarmist or fully denying that it will ever be a problem, i mean taking a middle ground of thinking about the reality of what a partial nuclear meltdown that's still not fully contained can do