Between the Navy and 3 years at the Harris Plant in construction and Start-Up, I know about the difference in dosages. That is a good article for those not in the club though, Thanks Rand. I’m printing and keeping that one for future reference.
All that aside, what has me stymied this week is that 1 million times normal dose reading that got reported. The million X reading jumped onto the media sites in a hurry. then, it took hours to report that it was an ‘just’ erroneous reading.
It’s almost like the techs are reporting to NHK fast and first and the company and the government second. Then the company and the government are slow in undoing such reports. It was the same with the mix up over, “…we took the operators out because of high rad levels, weeeellll,………nope, we didn’t really.” “That was just a mixed up original report.”
I’m concerned that they seem to be doing all this willy nilly, and I’ll admit, I’m old and scary. But my experience is, when people screw the pooch over HERE, there are usually multiple pooch scenarios going on at the same time, ELSEWHERE, or NEARBY.
Or is it just me, who sees it that way?
Interesting comparison of how much radiation astronauts are routinely exposed to while in space. Can’t think of any astronauts that died as a direct result of their exposure.
“Can’t think of any astronauts that died as a direct result of their exposure.”
According to a colleague of mine in aerospace medicine, the radiation encountered in space reduces immune response and causes cancer in ways that terrestrial radiation does not — and no one knows why.
I’m a little surprised that he implied there are no alpha emitters in what went up the plume.
Interesting, Josh. Is it an old list, or did the Mir and the ISS have better shielding?
And I admit to being somewhat confused by all of the different measuring units. Millirads, millirems, millisieverts, etc.
As I understand it, rads are raw units of energy of radioactive particles measured. Rems and Sieverts weigh the radioactive dose by estimated biological effect. For example, charged particles have greater effect (at least once they get in the body) over gamma rays which in turn have greater effect than neutrons.
I wonder if the Professor from “Gilligan’s Island” ever tried to harness banana radioactivity…
You didn’t see the episode where the professor built the banana reactor to power up the comm systems in a washed up capsule that was inhabited by a deranged monkey who kept stealing Mary Ann’s coconut cream pies? Uummm…. Mary Ann.
I’m with Der Schtumpy, the Japanese are way behind the curve with this whole crisis. In fact, I don’t think their management culture is conducive to crisis management. At least certain Japanese like like the late Dr Masao Miyamoto think that is the case. See this article from Zerohedge
Couple of points here. First, apparently the worst way to get exposed to radiation is to actually absorb medium-halflife alpha emitters such as radium and plutonium. Alpha particles outside the body don’t do much damage (penetration is very low – your skin will probably stop it) but get the stuff inside your body and that’s a different matter.
On the subject of cosmic radiation; I’m no expert, but one type of radiation that essentially only occurs in cosmic rays is high-energy heavy ions. (An occasional one has comparable energy to a well-thrown cricket ball.) Maybe that’s something to do with it; also maybe so is the fact of being in microgravity as well. Microgravity is not very good for human bodies, so maybe the radiation hurts more because it’s hitting bodies already under stress?
I’m concerned that they seem to be doing all this willy nilly, and I’ll admit, I’m old and scary. But my experience is, when people screw the pooch over HERE, there are usually multiple pooch scenarios going on at the same time, ELSEWHERE, or NEARBY.
Or is it just me, who sees it that way?
It doesn’t look that bad to me. Sure, they have a serious problem with releasing conflicting data on the accident and local radiation levels, but the fundamental problem of cooling the reactors seems to be going well. They’re pretty much down to reactor 2, which apparently has some molten core leaking out the bottom of the reactor. Get that cooled off and then they’re down to an expensive clean up and shutdown of these reactors.
“Interesting, Josh. Is it an old list”
Judging by the late 90’s level of HTML on that site I’d say it’s a bit dusty.
“the radiation encountered in space reduces immune response and causes cancer in ways that terrestrial radiation does not — and no one knows why.”
Hmmm, nope I can’t think of any Soyuz astronauts that come back from the ISS slumping out the hatch the moment they touch down and immediately puking black bile. Or, have I heard about astronauts developing tumors or disorders within 6 months of their trip. Sure, there are astronauts that have developed cancer in later life. To me, it becomes difficult to attribute that to anything more than genetics or the processes of aging.
Judging by the late 90′s level of HTML on that site I’d say it’s a bit dusty.
Well, yeah, it’s incomplete — there’s no listing for super-powers like Spider-Man or The Incredible Hulk…
“there’s no listing for super-powers like Spider-Man or The Incredible Hulk…
Nor, anything about Scott Baio when he got Zapped!
I think the Fantastic Four would be a more apropriate analogy.
“Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it’s bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.”
J. Frank Parnell
Repo Man
1984
I think the Fantastic Four would be a more apropriate analogy.
“Mom, my pet lizard and moth are gone! I hope the Fukushima plant didn’t hurt them.”
Between the Navy and 3 years at the Harris Plant in construction and Start-Up, I know about the difference in dosages. That is a good article for those not in the club though, Thanks Rand. I’m printing and keeping that one for future reference.
All that aside, what has me stymied this week is that 1 million times normal dose reading that got reported. The million X reading jumped onto the media sites in a hurry. then, it took hours to report that it was an ‘just’ erroneous reading.
It’s almost like the techs are reporting to NHK fast and first and the company and the government second. Then the company and the government are slow in undoing such reports. It was the same with the mix up over, “…we took the operators out because of high rad levels, weeeellll,………nope, we didn’t really.” “That was just a mixed up original report.”
I’m concerned that they seem to be doing all this willy nilly, and I’ll admit, I’m old and scary. But my experience is, when people screw the pooch over HERE, there are usually multiple pooch scenarios going on at the same time, ELSEWHERE, or NEARBY.
Or is it just me, who sees it that way?
Interesting comparison of how much radiation astronauts are routinely exposed to while in space. Can’t think of any astronauts that died as a direct result of their exposure.
“Can’t think of any astronauts that died as a direct result of their exposure.”
According to a colleague of mine in aerospace medicine, the radiation encountered in space reduces immune response and causes cancer in ways that terrestrial radiation does not — and no one knows why.
I’m a little surprised that he implied there are no alpha emitters in what went up the plume.
Interesting, Josh. Is it an old list, or did the Mir and the ISS have better shielding?
And I admit to being somewhat confused by all of the different measuring units. Millirads, millirems, millisieverts, etc.
As I understand it, rads are raw units of energy of radioactive particles measured. Rems and Sieverts weigh the radioactive dose by estimated biological effect. For example, charged particles have greater effect (at least once they get in the body) over gamma rays which in turn have greater effect than neutrons.
I wonder if the Professor from “Gilligan’s Island” ever tried to harness banana radioactivity…
You didn’t see the episode where the professor built the banana reactor to power up the comm systems in a washed up capsule that was inhabited by a deranged monkey who kept stealing Mary Ann’s coconut cream pies? Uummm…. Mary Ann.
I’m with Der Schtumpy, the Japanese are way behind the curve with this whole crisis. In fact, I don’t think their management culture is conducive to crisis management. At least certain Japanese like like the late Dr Masao Miyamoto think that is the case. See this article from Zerohedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/castration-hiv-scandal-and-japanese-bureaucracy-speech-masao-miyamoto-md
Couple of points here. First, apparently the worst way to get exposed to radiation is to actually absorb medium-halflife alpha emitters such as radium and plutonium. Alpha particles outside the body don’t do much damage (penetration is very low – your skin will probably stop it) but get the stuff inside your body and that’s a different matter.
On the subject of cosmic radiation; I’m no expert, but one type of radiation that essentially only occurs in cosmic rays is high-energy heavy ions. (An occasional one has comparable energy to a well-thrown cricket ball.) Maybe that’s something to do with it; also maybe so is the fact of being in microgravity as well. Microgravity is not very good for human bodies, so maybe the radiation hurts more because it’s hitting bodies already under stress?
I’m concerned that they seem to be doing all this willy nilly, and I’ll admit, I’m old and scary. But my experience is, when people screw the pooch over HERE, there are usually multiple pooch scenarios going on at the same time, ELSEWHERE, or NEARBY.
Or is it just me, who sees it that way?
It doesn’t look that bad to me. Sure, they have a serious problem with releasing conflicting data on the accident and local radiation levels, but the fundamental problem of cooling the reactors seems to be going well. They’re pretty much down to reactor 2, which apparently has some molten core leaking out the bottom of the reactor. Get that cooled off and then they’re down to an expensive clean up and shutdown of these reactors.
“Interesting, Josh. Is it an old list”
Judging by the late 90’s level of HTML on that site I’d say it’s a bit dusty.
“the radiation encountered in space reduces immune response and causes cancer in ways that terrestrial radiation does not — and no one knows why.”
Hmmm, nope I can’t think of any Soyuz astronauts that come back from the ISS slumping out the hatch the moment they touch down and immediately puking black bile. Or, have I heard about astronauts developing tumors or disorders within 6 months of their trip. Sure, there are astronauts that have developed cancer in later life. To me, it becomes difficult to attribute that to anything more than genetics or the processes of aging.
Well, yeah, it’s incomplete — there’s no listing for super-powers like Spider-Man or The Incredible Hulk…
“there’s no listing for super-powers like Spider-Man or The Incredible Hulk…
Nor, anything about Scott Baio when he got Zapped!
I think the Fantastic Four would be a more apropriate analogy.
“Ra-di-a-tion. Yes, indeed. You hear the most outrageous lies about it. Half-baked goggle-box do-gooders telling everybody it’s bad for you. Pernicious nonsense. Everybody could stand a hundred chest X-rays a year. They ought to have them, too.”
J. Frank Parnell
Repo Man
1984
I think the Fantastic Four would be a more apropriate analogy.
“Mom, my pet lizard and moth are gone! I hope the Fukushima plant didn’t hurt them.”
http://www.wired.com/images/article/full/2008/04/mothra_godzilla_500px.jpg