The now Radioactive Pacific. . . .

Bird of Prey

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'No safe levels' of radiation in Japan Experts warn that any detectable level of radiation is 'too much'.

In a nuclear crisis that is becoming increasingly serious, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Agency confirmed that radioactive iodine-131 in seawater samples taken near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex that was seriously damaged by the recent tsunami off the coast of Japan is 4,385 times the level permitted by law.

Airborne radiation near the plant has been measured at 4-times government limits.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, the company that operates the crippled plant, has begun releasing more than 11,000 tons of radioactive water that was used to cool the fuel rods into the ocean while it attempts to find the source of radioactive leaks. The water being released is about 100 times more radioactive than legal limits.

Meanwhile, water that is vastly more radioactive continues to gush into the ocean through a large crack in a six-foot deep pit at the nuclear plant. Over the weekend, workers at the plant used sawdust, shredded newspaper and diaper chemicals in a desperate attempt to plug the area, which failed. Water leaking from the pit is about 10,000 times more radioactive than water normally found at a nuclear plant

Thus, radiation from a meltdown in the reactor core of reactor No. 2 is leaking out into the water and soil, with other reactors continuing to experience problems.

Groundwater near the nuclear plant contains radioactive iodine 10,000 times the legal threshold.

Yet scientists and activists question these government and nuclear industry “safe” limits of radiation exposure.

“The U.S. Department of Energy has testified that there is no level of radiation that is so low that it is without health risks,” Jacqueline Cabasso, the Executive Director of the Western States Legal Foundation, told Al Jazeera. . . .

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/04/20114219250664111.html

This makes the BP oil spill look like a walk in the park. It is a health threat, despite what the Japanese government and associated companies and agencies would like us all to believe. And now radioactive water is being deliberately flushed into the Pacific, an ocean - I thought - that was shared by all of us. . . .
 
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Diana Hignutt

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Careful, there BoP, you don't want to be labeled a scaremonger... I should know.
 

Bird of Prey

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The facts are the facts, Diana. The Japanese are now pumping radioactive poison into the Pacific. Gee, thanks. Of course, I didn't know Japan owned the Pacific or that they had nuclear reactors practically on the beach, or that they built them, let alone let them function in an aged condition without getting rid of the waste, despite the blatantly obvious earthquake risk. . . .
 

Priene

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There's lots to worry about about Fukushima, but radioactive iodine-131 isn't one of them. It has a half-life of eight and a half days, which means in a year or so most will have gone. Best not going swimming in that area in the meantime, though.
 

ArcadiaDarrell

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and we don't? There's an old nuclear facility near San Diego right by the beach. Stupid is as people do.
 

Bird of Prey

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and we don't? There's an old nuclear facility near San Diego right by the beach. Stupid is as people do.

I've always been opposed to nuclear, and that facility should be shut down. Of course, we don't have a president worth anything - he's too busy spending money we don't have on Libya - so it won't get done, with a federal mandate, anyway. . . .
 

Bird of Prey

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Gotta wonder what it does to the marine life in eight and a half days though, and where the infected fish will swim to.

Not to mention marine mammals. It's very upsetting, and it is a crime against all those sharing the Pacific. And the crap being discharged is not even the super charged stuff that is leaking into the water. It's infuriating; it's a crime against nature, frankly. . . .
 

Bird of Prey

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Which means that well over twenty years ago we stopped testing??
 

Zoombie

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There was a ban on overground testing, but we still did underground testing...but I think we stopped.
 

Magdalen

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Don Allen

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I would bet the Japanese sushi is extra hot these days....
 

ArcadiaDarrell

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Gotta wonder what it does to the marine life in eight and a half days though, and where the infected fish will swim to.

One word: Godzilla. (this is gonna be awesome.)


Beyond my sadistic jokes, the President can only do so much. Its states that need to take action. Oregon was smart enough to shut down their nuclear plants back in the 1990s. I think other states are lazy in their willingness to take action insisting that nuclear is cheap until it breakdowns that is.
 

Zoombie

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What we need to do, desperately, is build newer, safer plants...OR discontinue them entirely.

Sitting in this middle zone is irresponsible and dangerous and stupid.
 

BunnyMaz

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Sitting in this middle zone is irresponsible and dangerous and stupid.

Agreed. Nuclear can be a great way to produce electricity etc, but not with ancient, poorly maintained plants.
 

Zoombie

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Agreed. Nuclear can be a great way to produce electricity etc, but not with ancient, poorly maintained plants.

Specially since we have designs for plants that physically cannot melt down.

But America has a ban on building NEW reactors.

We have NEW reactors that avoid some to most of the problems of people who are against nuclear power are afraid...but we can't BUILD them because we're afraid of nuclear power. But we don't GET RID of them.

Its one of those completely insane things that pops up when hysteria takes over for logic.

Logically, one can argue against having any kind of nuclear power. They HAVE their dangers, I'm not an idiot. (I personally believe that, via minimizing those dangers with clever engineering, the pros outweigh the cons, but you're free to disagree with em).

Logically, one can argue FOR nuclear power.

But no one can logically argue for what we have now, which is neither having nor NOT having nuclear power.

It'd be funny if it weren't so freaking dangerous.
 

muravyets

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What we need to do, desperately, is build newer, safer plants...OR discontinue them entirely.

Sitting in this middle zone is irresponsible and dangerous and stupid.
Agreed absolutely. Only in regards to future paths, I vote for discontinuing entirely. Our money for new development should be on less toxic alternatives, in my opinion. But we move forward on neither path as long as states and national governments are taking the lazy way of limping along with whatever the energy companies tell them from day to day.
 

Diana Hignutt

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Zoombie, where's the fucking cold fusion when we need it?