We are all tuned to the ongoing suffering in Japan, the result of a terrible earthquake, one of the worst in history, at 8.8 or 8.9 on the Magnitude scale.
The earthquake lasted several minutes, was and is still being followed by aftershocks which by themselves would be considered devastating quakes, and to estimate the number of lives lost is seen as irresponsible. In one town alone, 15,000 homes were destroyed. Photos depict water rushing into cities, deep as buildings are tall, and moving at 300 to 500 miles per hour. Houses and cars by the thousands are swept helplessly in the terrible current. We wonder how many of those vehicles may be occupied, the occupants now likely dead, caught up even as they drove.
If destruction from the earthquake and the tsunami are a consideration, we must also consider that we are confronted with a potential nuclear accident at Japan’s nuclear power generating plants. The quake and tsunami eliminated all power to the electrical production plants, even generators and in some cases batteries were rendered useless. In nuclear reactors, cooling is fundamental. When cooling fails, explosions and melt-downs can occur. This has happened in the past, most notably in Chernobyl, Russia. Explosions letting nuclear materials escape into the atmosphere produce toxic results; cancers over time, in those exposed.
On Friday, during and following the initial earthquake, the Japanese government issued an emergency warning and ordered 2000 people evacuated from near the Nuclear Stations. Rises in pressure, chiefly caused by failure of coolants caused the problem. The outcome is uncertain; the threat to human life is inescapable. Cooling and pressure concerns continue to rise, even as the United States and others work to bring in structures and materials for cooling. The emergency measures may take several days to incorporate. There have been explosions, and radioactive material has entered the atmosphere. The area of contamination is now estimated at about 35 miles.
In attempting to shed light on the situation regarding the Japanese reactors, I reviewed some facts about the mentioned past nuclear accidents. We may benefit from a look back at those incidents at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, and Three-mile Island, in the United States, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In both of these nuclear facility breakdowns, the absence of proper cooling water played a significant role.
Chernobyl is a city on the Pripiat River and the home of the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant. The Chernobyl catastrophe is considered among the greatest industrial accidents of all time.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - fred
Modern reactor designs are safe and cannot melt down, they just refuse to build them
2 - Ruvy
Apparently there was a melt-down in Japan - and there may be more of them. But the government is trying awful had to cover them up. The cabinet secretary says one thing - the head of the nuclear agency says another.
3 - troll
...get your iodized salt here
4 - Cindy
A new analysis of health statistics in the region conducted by the Radiation and Public Health Project has, however, found that death rates for infants, children, and the elderly soared in the first two years after the Three Mile Island accident in Dauphin and surrounding counties. (link)
5 - Dr Dreadful
Cindy, your link is to About.com, which in turn links to the RPHP, but I can't find that report anywhere on their website, or indeed anywhere else.
6 - John Lake
Here is Cindy's Link
7 - Cindy
Dr.D,
Found the press release summarizing the study on the RPHP site via google.
8 - Cindy
3 - troll,
hmmm, an opportunity for a new market. wonder how we can capitalize on it? are you good at writing jingles? something like lower your radiation level with...wonder what rhymes with radiation?
9 - troll
we at Acme Salt Mines believe that our brand says it all
10 - Cindy
Japan's nuclear crisis has intensified as authorities raced to combat the threat of multiple reactor meltdowns and evacuated more than 170,000 people after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Amid fears of possible radioactive contamination, nuclear plant operators are trying to keep temperatures down in a series of reactors - including one where officials feared a partial meltdown could be under way - to prevent the disaster from growing worse. (link)
11 - John Lake
The size of the Earth has changed microscopically. The revolution, or rate of spin has changed by 1.6 microseconds/24 hours. The axis of the Earth has altered by 10 cm. This is new information, not yet analyzed, but a rocket scientist might harbor a concern for serious consequences, changes in weather, more earthquake activity.
12 - John Lake
reports vary. Here is a link to a reliable source, early report of changes: Huf post
13 - Boeke
Have Japanese officials administered prophylactic doses of Potassium Iodide to residents near the reactors? This is considered SOP after Chernobyl.
Potassium Iodide
Following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in April, 1986, a saturated solution of potassium iodide (SSKI) was administered to 10.5 million children and 7 million adults in Poland[22] as a prophylactic measure against accumulation of radioactive iodine-131 in the thyroid gland. People in the areas immediately surrounding Chernobyl itself, however, were not given the supplement.[23]
Potassium iodide’s (KI) value as a radiation protective (thyroid blocking) agent was demonstrated at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident when Soviet authorities distributed it in a 30 km zone around the plant. The purpose was to protect residents from radioactive iodine, a highly carcinogenic material found in nuclear reactors which had been released by the damaged reactor. Only a limited amount of KI was available, but those who received it were protected. Later, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported, “thousands of measurements of I-131 (radioactive iodine) activity...suggest that the observed levels were lower than would have been expected had this prophylactic measure not been taken. The use of KI...was credited with permissible iodine content in 97% of the evacuees tested.”[24]
Poland, 300 miles from Chernobyl, also distributed KI to protect its population. Approximately 18 million doses were distributed, with follow-up studies showing no known thyroid cancer among KI recipients.[25] With the passage of time, people living in irradiated areas where KI was not available have developed thyroid cancer at epidemic levels, which is why the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported “The data clearly demonstrate the risks of thyroid radiation...KI can be used [to] provide safe and effective protection against thyroid cancer caused by irradiation.[26]
Chernobyl also demonstrated that the need to protect the thyroid from radiation was greater than expected. Within ten years of the accident, it became clear that thyroid damage caused by released radioactive iodine was virtually the only adverse health effect that could be measured. As reported by the NRC, studies after the accident showed that “As of 1996, except for thyroid cancer, there has been no confirmed increase in the rates of other cancers, including leukemia, among the...public, that have been attributed to releases from the accident.”[27]
...
14 - Dr Dreadful
John @ #11, 12: These changes happen after every earthquake. Newton's Third Law.
In response, I posit Jones's First Law.
15 - Dr Dreadful
Cindy,
I did see that page when I looked at the site but didn't equate it with your citation, as the About.com page didn't mention baby teeth.
My main concern with this study is that without demonstrating how strontium-90 is causing the higher mortality and morbidity rates in Dauphin County, Mangano is just committing the correlation fallacy. What makes it worse is that he already seemed to have made up his mind that the higher mortality and morbidity rates in Dauphin County were due to strontium-90, before the investigation even began. It may have been completed by now, although again I don't see any updates on the website. Mangano now seems to have shifted the attention of the study to the effects of fallout from atmospheric bomb tests - perhaps he didn't get the results he expected from Three Mile Island?
The RPHP doesn't seem to me to have much sense of perspective. Nuclear has a bad rap because of the severe short- and long-term devastation caused by the detonation of an atomic bomb. But if you look at the health risks of living near a nuclear generating station alongside those of living near a fossil fuel power plant - coal, oil, gas etc - they pale in comparison.
Oh, and another thing...
16 - Cindy
I prefer to live with a solar panel on my roof. But the capitalists won't have that.
17 - John Lake
I might point out that the Democrats are in full support of solar and wind energy.
18 - Ruvy
I might point out that the Democrats are in full support of solar and wind...
Any political parties in support of breaking wind?
19 - John Lake
Ruvy:
Oh you picked up on that... I got saw it, but tried to sneak it through.
20 - John Lake
was going to be "got lazy"..
21 - Dr Dreadful
Any political parties in support of breaking wind?
They'd get my vote.
22 - Dr Dreadful
Cindy, I'd like a solar panel on my roof as well, especially as I live in a prime location for one. But my homeowners' association ain't having any of it either.
And bear in mind that solar energy production is also not without its health and pollution hazards.
23 - Cindy
Did you hear about the blonde that stayed up all night to see where the sun went?
It finally dawned on him.
24 - Cindy
Oh, btw Dr.D, here's a story I came across this morning whilst pouring over the news...you may have already seen this.
25 - Dr Dreadful
Cindy @ #23: Groooaaaannnn... :-)
@ #24: That story's been making the rounds for a few weeks now. No, Betelgeuse will not be as bright as the Sun, and Dr Carter never said so: the reporter seems to have made that bit up himself. The chances of it blowing up next year are thousands to one against: all that we can say for certain is that it will blow, some time in the next 100,000 years or so...
A piece on the subject by an actual astronomer.