Japanese N-Plant Explosion

"A World Health Organization spokesman said that radiation levels outside the 20-kilometer (12-mile) evacuation zone around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan are not harmful for human health. He said the WHO finds no public health reason to avoid travel to unaffected areas in Japan or to recommend that foreign nationals leave the country. He also said there is no risk that exported Japanese foods are contaminated with radiation."
 
"One of the DOE monitors in Sacramento, Calif., detected tiny quantities of a radioisotope (xenon-133). The level of the isotope detected would result in one-millionth of the dose rate that a person would normally receive from natural background sources."
 
ULTRA said:
I think it's unlikely that we'll get any more melting of the rods, but it can't be ruled out.
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Jesus returning and smiting us all can't be ruled out either.

Trippy said:
"One of the DOE monitors in Sacramento, Calif., detected tiny quantities of a radioisotope (xenon-133). The level of the isotope detected would result in one-millionth of the dose rate that a person would normally receive from natural background sources."
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Yeah so then I was right! They aren't detecting the radiation but the isotope.
 
Trippy said:
"One of the DOE monitors in Sacramento, Calif., detected tiny quantities of a radioisotope (xenon-133). The level of the isotope detected would result in one-millionth of the dose rate that a person would normally receive from natural background sources."
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Of course no one will mention that we routinely have people breathe in quite a bit of Xenon-133 to do pulmonary tests.

http://www.nordion.com/documents/products/Xe-133_Can.pdf

And there in is the reason we will soon be bombarded with hyped up stories about radiation from Japan circling the globe.

Since our ability to detect radiation works to the level of one millionth of the background radiation it won't be long before nearly every nation in the Northern Hemisphere is reporting radiation readings.


Arthur
 
The isotope is a radioactive gas produced by nuclear reactors in Japan. Why is anyone surprised, it was always gonna happen? It's no big deal, you'd get far more radiation from the luminous dial on my watch. ARRRGGHH IT burns...
 
adoucette said:
Of course no one will mention that we routinely have people breathe in quite a bit of Xenon-133 to do pulmonary tests.

http://www.nordion.com/documents/products/Xe-133_Can.pdf

And there in is the reason we will soon be bombarded with hyped up stories about radiation from Japan circling the globe.

Since our ability to detect radiation works to the level of one millionth of the background radiation it won't be long before nearly every nation in the Northern Hemisphere is reporting radiation readings.


Arthur
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ULTRA said:
The isotope is a radioactive gas produced by nuclear reactors in Japan. Why is anyone surprised, it was always gonna happen? It's no big deal, you'd get far more radiation from the luminous dial on my watch. ARRRGGHH IT burns...
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Precisely.

And I know that emails are already circling about good sources of iodine (the emails about fish and seaweed are wrong btw, you need like 5000 teaspoons a day of kelp to get the required dosage of Iodine).

And I've seen questions like "Is it safe to take little Timmy out into the rain to play soccer this weekend?".
 
adoucette said:
Of course no one will mention that we routinely have people breathe in quite a bit of Xenon-133 to do pulmonary tests.

http://www.nordion.com/documents/products/Xe-133_Can.pdf

And there in is the reason we will soon be bombarded with hyped up stories about radiation from Japan circling the globe.

Since our ability to detect radiation works to the level of one millionth of the background radiation it won't be long before nearly every nation in the Northern Hemisphere is reporting radiation readings.

Arthur
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I don't think so, it depends on how they are detecting this, a mass spectrometer could do it, in which case they aren't detecting the radiation at all. Another way they could do it is with a Gamma ray spectrometer that would detect the radiation. Considering that the readings are pSv (10^-12) I find the latter doubtful, not unless several hours of spectra readings are summed and Fourier transform.
 
The problem as I see it isn't the nuclear fuel itself melting anymore. It's the Zircon tubes they're kept in that keep catching fire. It's a reactive metal in air, especially when hot, and its Element Classification: Transition Metal

Density (g/cc): 6.506

Melting Point (K): 2125

Boiling Point (K): 4650

Appearance: grayish-white, lustrous, corrosion-resistant metal

Atomic Radius (pm): 160

Atomic Volume (cc/mol): 14.1

Covalent Radius (pm): 145

Ionic Radius: 79 (+4e)

Specific Heat (@20°C J/g mol): 0.281

Fusion Heat (kJ/mol): 19.2

Evaporation Heat (kJ/mol): 567

Debye Temperature (K): 250.00

Pauling Negativity Number: 1.33

First Ionizing Energy (kJ/mol): 659.7

Oxidation States: 4

Lattice Structure: Hexagonal

Lattice Constant (Å): 3.230

Lattice C/A Ratio: 1.593

It's this, I believe that's been catching fire and spreading the fission products contained within around. It's easily oxidised, having 4 oxidation states hence its propensity to burn in air. If the tubes caught fire, they could easily develop the heat required to melt the uranium pellets inside. It has a very high boiling point, more than enough to melt the nuclear fuel as the heat of oxidation will be far higher still. If the melting point of U237, if that's what's inside, is around 3000k, then the heat of boiling or burning zircon metal is plenty to melt at least part of the core at nearly 4500k.

But it's been a good day. nothing else has gone seroiusly wrong, the electricity is nearly up and running, and the diesel pumps are going still. All good stuff.
 
iceaura said:
And that, folks, is how the people who are pushing nuclear power generation think. That is not a joke - that's the fundamental attitude.
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I like how you skirt around actually saying "he's wrong" and instead attempt to make me look like a fool by eliciting an emotional response... how about you actually make a claim and back it with facts instead of random fallacious crap?

The lack of any sort of counter-claim is also irritating...
 
http://www.epa.gov/narel/radnet/pdf/radnet_system_overview.htm

Specific Radionuclide Detection. Although there are many radionuclides, each radionuclide emits unique radiations (energy), which can be used like a fingerprint to identify it. By studying the radiation energy spectrum, experts can discern which radionuclides are present around a monitor. To make the identification process more efficient, RadNet organizes the gamma energy spectrum into ten contiguous ranges, termed Regions of Interest (ROIs). The fixed monitors report total gamma detections (counts) within each ROI. By tracking the long-term changes of values within each ROI at each monitor, one can roughly determine the increase or decrease of radionuclides at a specific location. These fluctuations may be routine, or they may indicate an abnormality. To precisely identify radionuclides, scientists at NAREL download the entire spectrum and analyze it using additional software. This feature is not available on the CDX Web site.
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People on eBay are now selling home made KI pills.
Disgraceful.
This is from Justsayno2fallout:

The threat of heavy radiation exposure in the U.S. is very possible, especially for the west coast states!

Take preparations now for you and your family!

Potassium Iodide has flown off the shelves in the U.S. and most other parts of the world. It is becoming difficult to find. 14 pill packs that were $10-$20 last week are now going for up to $200 to $500+ each! You can expect the price to rise as the demand for them escalates.

I am offering pure USP grade Potassium Iodide crystal powder. It is the active ingredient in the iOSAT radiation pills. This current batch was tested to have a 99.7% purity. 1.3 grams of this powder is the equivalent to what's in ten 130mg adult doses or twenty 65mg child doses. It could easily be dissolved in liquid or made into drops.

This auction is for SIX 1.3 gram packs of this USP grade Potassium Iodide. (You will be receiving the 6 sacks in picture 2, picture 1 is an example of what can be done with the raw powder.) They will be separated in three 1.3 gram sacks so that careful eyeball measuring is possible I will ship your order anywhere in the U.S. overnight! I will also ship out of country orders. Your purchase is protected by eBay/Paypal, so you will be protected from any sort of fraud. As you can see my eBay feedback score is 100%. I will ship USPS overnight Express mail with signature confirmation. You will be provided with a tracking number. Express mail will deliver on Saturday AND Sunday!

ALL ORDERS PAID FOR BY 10:30am PACIFIC TIME WILL BE SHIPPED SAME DAY!

10% of all proceeds get donated to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief fund.
 
Reports say radioactive iodine found in food, water, milk ~ Sky news.
 
The good news is all they found was Iodine and the levels were extremely low and because the half life of Radioactive Iodine is very short (8 days) and so if they get the gas releases under control, and it seems they are doing so as the radiation levels continue to drop at the reactor site, this does not indicate a long term problem as radioactive Iodine will be gone in a matter of weeks.

As to the levels of Iodine being low, if you ate 1 kilo of contaminated spinach each day for a year you would get the equiv of 1/5th of a CT scan.

In one of the more encouraging bits of news, the Japanese who rarely make predictions unless they are fairly certain of the outcome said this today: "We more or less do not expect to see anything worse than what we are seeing now," said Hidehiko Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. Which considering that the main power line has been installed and individual power is expected to be restored by tomorrow to all of the reactors and the cooling process seems to be being managed relatively well such that the decreasing level of radiation has allowed the number of workers on site to increase to nearly 500.

So to put the reactor situation in perspective, the reactors haven't killed anyone, indeed they haven't even given anyone a medically significant dose of radiation, while the earthquake/tsunami has killed more than 7,300 people (with 11,000 still missing), caused several hundreds of Billions of dollars in damage and made more than 450,000 people homeless.

Arthur
 
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