Japan hit by 8.9 earthquake w/tsunami

We have following map from our government

Ken@Japan

 

I've had radioactive goo a few times too. Difference is it's in a form that doesn't stick around in the body very long.

 

Another crazy video of the power of the tsunami

 

Things appear to be degrading. When BBC reports 'ten million times normal' that's when I, within one to two hundreds km radius would start taking those iodine pills.

Many (I might say 'we') assailed the panic buying of KI pills, but now it's show time.

If you are near field, the point is to flood your thyroid with the happy I isotope, in advance of whenever the unhappy I isotope might arrive. If your kidneys or other internal organs do not work well, don't flood yourself with KI. However, sadly, AFAIK there is no plan B.

If you are far field (>200 km), I say do nothing. If you have stockpiled KI pills, consider donating them to the near field. Attend to the news media, such as it is.

Particulate-filtering face masks do nothing against 131I because it is a gas. Activated charcoal facemasks (the ones that are filled with black stuff) are effective to a degree. I have done no searching whether there is a DIY website describing how to make activated charcoal. "Activating" is nothing more that increasing surface area of charcoal by heating it in the absence of oxygen.

Good luck Japan. Dang I wish we were not in this situation now. I wish that all of you had convenient access to radiation-monitoring equipment. I started another darn thread about that. Who cares...

 

Another false alarm. Something was wrong with the reading.

Tom

 

Sometimes, I think Homer Simpson is running the operation

 

How do we know he isn't? They all wear those white suits, so as to not be identified in a lineup.

Tom

 

From what I read,the worker who took the reading evacuated before doing a 2nd reading to verify.
That doesnt necessarily mean the first reading was false.

 

Subsequent news releases have stated that it was. However, it was for Iodine 134, which only has a half life of 53 hours. Unless more contamination is added, Iodine 134 levels drop very quickly.

Tom

 

Example:

Iodine 131 (half-life = 8.0197 days, source: wikipedia). Medical use: http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=radioiodine

Cesium 137 (half-life = 30.17 years, source: wikipedia). Medical use: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2807963

 

Thorium 232 (half-life = 1.406×10^10 years)

Thorium 209 (half-life = 7 mS)

 

Neither of those are used for medical applications. My post edited.

 

I should hope not. I posted them to show the wide variation in half-life, even from isotopes of the same element.

Tom

 

Indeed TEPCO (per BBC) has withdrawn their '10 million' report. Replaced by the puddles in question near reactor two confirmed at 1000 mSv/hr.

The facility was evacuated, and it is not clear when/if the workers may return. Indeed if the pddle is dominated by 131I it will decay quickly.

But, while no workers on site there will be a great reduction on what can be done for thermal and pressure control. There is no plan being publicly promugated on how this is going to be resolved.

This puddle was obviously unexpected and were it related to a containment vessel pressure venting, they might have said so. Absent that, and absent published pressure readings from reactor 2 containment, reactor 2 containment has failed. If this massively interrupts onsite work, more containment failures will follow.

I wait for you here to disagree with these conclusions/speculations. I wait for TEPCO to inform the public.

Ken, is there an nsc.go.jp update since March 23?

 

53 minutes, from everything I've seen. So it drops by a factor of 100 million per day.

Which also means that whatever is being detected is being made now, not left over from earlier problems or from before the reactor scram.

 

they found iodine in rainwater in massachusetts today.

 

Don't overlook the bigger picture. The iodine is only one of the many, many fission products released in this disaster. There are a great many others scattered inside the facilities that make them too dangerous to do any sustained work for years. Too much time is being wasted having a small overwhelmed TEPCO crew do what needs to be a national emergency undertaking, not a utility bandaid job.

 

Or the amount released is immense. Note that a lot of decay products come from decay chains, not the immediate fission.