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JBrown
Joined: 27 Nov 2011
Posts: 43
Location: US
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 Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Pitarou wrote: |
Stay away! All of Japan is a post-apoalyptic radioactive hellhole. You really wouldn't like it. Oh, and if you do happen to come, please don't apply for any jobs, especially not in the vicinity of Narita, Chiba. If you do, a curse will fall on you and your whole family. (Not that there are any jobs, anyhow. Nobody has time for English lessons, what with all the starvation and mutant zombie hordes and all that.)
Go somewhere nice and safe like ... I dunno' ... China instead.
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Did it work? |
Yes! I have always wanted to roam the post-apocalyptic nuclear wastelands! Are there any Super Mutants? I am especially skilled at killing them! |
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Kornan DeKobb
Joined: 24 Jan 2010
Posts: 242
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| Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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| So where do you think all those hundreds of millions of tons of radioactive seawater, used to cool the melting down cores, are going? Do you really think they can be permanently segregated from all the rest of the water? Radioactivity proceeding from Fukushima has been found 600 miles out to sea, in the US, and in the farms where food is grown within 50 miles and sent all over the country including that served to schoolchildren. Do you really want to take the chance that the Tokyo groundwater has not been contaminated? The Japanese government and TEPCO have been lying about all this from Day 1. |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Kornan DeKobb wrote: |
| So where do you think all those hundreds of millions of tons of radioactive seawater, used to cool the melting down cores, are going? |
The sea dilutes it to safe levels. That's the conclusion of the NOAA (i.e. the Americans) who went out and measured it. All indications are that the radioactive cesium is dispersing rather than accumulating. See ars technica for a good write-up.
| Kornan DeKobb wrote: |
| Do you really want to take the chance that the Tokyo groundwater has not been contaminated? |
Radiation levels have been and continue to be measured, by both private individuals and government agencies. There is no evidence for groundwater contamination, and no reason to think that it will become a problem. The only accumulation has been in places where waterborne junk pauses on its way out to sea (the outer banks of meanders and so on).
There is a small amount of contaminated food getting into the food chain, but it is not heavily contaminated, and people aren't eating it every day. It's nothing to worry about, especially for adults.
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The Japanese government and TEPCO have been lying about all this from Day 1.
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I don't trust them either, but I live east of Tokyo and I'm really not concerned. Contrary to popular belief, there is such a thing as a safe radiation dose, and it is higher than you might think.
By the way, Kornan DeKobb, am I right in thinking you live, or lived, in Hanoi? Are you aware of the health effects of pollution in your own backyard? (Viet Nam�s rapid growth: at what environmental costs) E.g. did you know that Bronchitis is three times more common in Hanoi than in the surrounding countryside?
Enough already with the fearmongering. |
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Kornan DeKobb
Joined: 24 Jan 2010
Posts: 242
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| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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"Safe?" "Nothing to worry about?" According to whom, another governmental agency? From your own link:
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| Nevertheless, the isotopes that landed on the ground have stayed there, creating a serious contamination problem that may take years to resolve. |
Your article continues:
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| Although the seas in the immediate vicinity of Fukushima probably experienced a very high dose of radioactivity during the months immediately after the disaster, as long as none of the isotopes accumulate in any organisms, the effects are unlikely to be long-lasting. |
The problem is that they DO accumulate, in places like the brain, muscle, ovaries, and testes where they thus exert a high dose upon the involved tissues.
Fukushima now radiating everyone: 'Unspeakable' reality
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Stopping along the way [to Fukushima], the Geiger showed that a head of cabbage registered as much radiation as an X-ray.
"So every time you have a cabbage, you have an X-ray," said Hayes...
"Do you think you'll ever be able to take food, water and air you breathe for granted again?" Hayes asked Chia Maxamoto.
"Ah, knowingly? I don't think so."
[City University of New York Professor of Nuclear Physics] Dr. Kaku asserted about the Japanese people, "These are guinea pigs, absolute human guinea pigs." |
We have managed so far to avoid he absolute worst case scenario which has nothing to do with the meltdowns at Reactors 1-3, but rather with #4 where the spent fuel rods are stored. But for how much longer?
If No. 4 pool collapses I�ve been told �during 50 years continual, you cannot contain
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The crisis at the Fukushima-Daiichi power plants has not ended. While the first three reactors contained fuel and presented a serious threat since March 11, 2011, they have largely been contained. Reactor 4 contained no fuel when the earthquake hit. Instead, the spent fuel rods had been moved to a cooling pool on the second floor of the containment unit. [...] If another high level earthquake hits the area, the building will certainly collapse. Japanese and American meteorologists have predicted that such a strong earthquake is indeed likely to hit this year.
The meltdown and unprecedented release of radiation that would ensue is the worst case scenario that then-Prime Minister Kan and other former officials have discussed in the past months. He warned during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos that such an accident would force the evacuation of the 35 million people in Tokyo, close half of Japan and compromise the nation�s sovereignty. Such a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe is unimaginable. |
But even if nothing further happens, do you maintain that there will not be a spike in thyroid cancers? There most certainly will be, and I'll meet you right back here in another 2-4 years when we'll begin to see it. |
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cat mother
Joined: 22 Sep 2009
Posts: 62
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| Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 9:58 pm Post subject: |
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Kaku is NOT, and I repeat NOT a nuclear physicist, he's a theoretical physicist, and his fear mongering is a tool he uses to sell his books.
I thought that was obvious to every reasonably bright person, both in Japan and in the US. But apparently not.
Please stop reading the Fukushima Diary (which has very clear credibility problems anyway) and unless you are in the affected area yourself and walk around with a dosimeter yourself, try to refrain from fear mongering, if you don't have any solid, complete info (not hearsay).
My school is located a bit less than 100 km from the border of the exclusion zone, radiation levels are tested daily and posted by the entrance for all parents to see. And they are all within safe parameters.
And yes, I have a degree in theoretical physics, too. But unlike Kaku, I'm not a "famous" professor who writes pop science books, which he then has to sell by any and all means necessary. |
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Apsara
Joined: 20 Sep 2005
Posts: 2142
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 7:56 am Post subject: |
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Maxamoto? That's not a normal Japanese name, can't even be written in Japanese.
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| Japanese and American meteorologists have predicted that such a strong earthquake is indeed likely to hit this year. |
What are meteorologists (weather forecasters) doing predicting earthquakes? That's the job of seismologists.
Just details I know, but can I ask what's your point in posting all this more than a year after the disaster, Kornan DeKobb? If you don't live in Japan, the people who live here probably know more about the situation than you do, and those planning on coming can access the same information you can and are capable of doing their own research, surely. |
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Kornan DeKobb
Joined: 24 Jan 2010
Posts: 242
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| Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:07 pm Post subject: |
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The whole situation really saddens me. Japan was high on my list for a long-term visit for a number of reasons, but not any more.
I certainly could be wrong; in fact, I really hope I am. But, I am willing to bet that in about three years time, we'll start to see a spike in thyroid cancers like we did in Chernobyl and downwind from the Hanford plant in Oregon. |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:02 am Post subject: |
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| Kornan DeKobb wrote: |
| I am willing to bet that in about three years time, we'll start to see a spike in thyroid cancers like we did in Chernobyl and downwind from the Hanford plant in Oregon. |
Uh-huh. You do know that kids in the vicinity of Fukushima were screened for radioactive iodine as soon as practically possible, don't you?
As I said earlier, I don't trust the authorities here. The NHK news has a distinctly "Big Brother is taking care of you" feel to it these days. Some issues certainly get downplayed or just go unreported. But still, there are other sources of data (that's data -- not wild speculation) available and, on the whole, I'm confident that things aren't nearly as bad as you're suggesting. |
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ssjup81
Joined: 15 Jun 2009
Posts: 664
Location: Adachi-ku, Tokyo, Japan
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| Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:13 am Post subject: |
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| I was living in Yamagata-shi when all that happened, happened last year. I'm back in Yamagata-ken, just not in Yamagata-shi. I'm living here again and I'm not worried. Everything seems to be okay based on what I have read, so it should still be okay to visit the country at least. Either way, bottom line, I'm not worried over the Fukushima situation. |
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refikagurz
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
Posts: 31
Location: Earth
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| Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 1:05 am Post subject: radiation |
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| By the way.. the Hanford complex is in Washington state... |
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namdak
Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 620
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timothypfox
Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 492
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| Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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Having been abroad, I am no longer certain how reliable the New York Times is as a news source. It is important to note how editorialized these news pieces look when writers add adjectives such as "struggles" to try and sell there stories.
News in America particularly around the time of the disaster gave the incredibly stark impression that Japan had become the new Krakatoa or Atlantis - while in reality life went on as usual for the majority of the regions and peoples of Japan.
namdak,
If you are going to direct us to news sources, I would direct us to several and try going for more impartial (and more reliable) public broadcasting news sources such as BBC, Canada's CBC, or NPR. |
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ghostrider
Joined: 30 May 2006
Posts: 147
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| Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:35 am Post subject: |
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I really miss Japan and wish I could return to live, but I'm fairly confident the Japanese government has and is mishandling this crisis and the problem is worse than they wish the public to know and that it's far from under control.
If I did return to live, I wouldn't go much further north than Osaka and would be extremely careful about what food I ate and swimming in the ocean.
The arguments to dismiss concerns about radiation exposure are the same now as they were a year ago. The counter arguments as well. Ho-hum. |
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Pitarou
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Posts: 1116
Location: Narita, Japan
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| Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 3:54 am Post subject: |
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| ghostrider wrote: |
| The arguments to dismiss concerns about radiation exposure are the same now as they were a year ago. The counter arguments as well. Ho-hum. |
And that pretty much sums it up. Thanks. |
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Mr. Kalgukshi
Mod Team
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Posts: 6613
Location: Need to know basis only.
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| Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 8:22 am Post subject: |
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Inappropriate postings have been deleted. Future ones will result in sanctions of the severe variety.
If you enjoy insulting other members, your tenure here may be ending very soon. |
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