jollyroger's picture

    Fukushima fallout reaches Germany.

    An early answer to my stated hopes that Fukushima will signal that nuclear generation of electricity has reached its "high water mark" (groan...).  After 60+ years running the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the Christian-Democrats (there's an  oxymoron...) are to be replaced by....wait for it... TEH GREENS.

    This reversal of fortune was unsurprisingly a response both to the catastrophe in Japan and Merkel's maladroit repositioning, and (re-re-positioning) on the issue of extending the license of several German reactors.

    Now if only our electorate will prove as sagacious next chance they get.

    Or, more likely, the passage of time will dull our memories, unable as we seem to be simultaneously to hold in our attention the threat of apocalyse, the threats of Sheen, and the shenanigans of Snooki.

    Comments

    You were hoping for Fukushima fallout to reach the US?

    Well, you got your wish*:

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/28/uk-nuclear-japan-massachusetts...

    (Oh wait, you meant in the metaphorical sense, didn't you?)

    *Yes, I know it's at non-threatening levels.


    non-threatening levels.

    I've learned not to  spar with you over physics, but  speaking for living things in general, ionizing radiation is only bad, badder, and worser, is it not?


    There's the American school of thought - along your lines - versus the French school of thought

    http://www.academie-medecine.fr/detailPublication.cfm?idRub=27&idLigne=26

    according to which there isn't a linear relationship between radiation levels and cancer - small incremental increases in radiation supposedly lowers cancer risk. But, hey, fuck the french.


    One of the psychotic harpy sisters was pushing "radiation prevents cancer" the other day--I forget if it was Shelle, Annie or Sarah...


    Yes, I heard that too. Think it was coming from that French report. I was stumbling around the net trying to remember some of allegations about Chernobyl-related thyroid cancer rates in N-E France from the 90s, and found this to be useful (if you're okay with the français). Looks like all the investigations got horribly botched, so no one knows really. The Académie des Sciences going up against the Académie de Medecine and then changing its position a couple of years later.


    Lovin' panache=fallout...


    "But, hey, fuck the French."

    There are days when it's real hard to disagree with Obey. 


    Ann Coulter's craziness aside, it's not insane to speculate that a minute amount of ionizing radiation is actually quite helpful for evolutionary purposes, and most likely not harmful for organisms of sufficient size (i.e., us). What constitutes "minute" is somewhat debatable, but I feel confident, that for now*, we're fine over here in the US. It's also worth pointing out that we're receiving ionizing radiation all the time, from the Sun, from our Milky Way's galactic core, from the Andromeda galaxy (those sneaky bastards), etc.…

    *Therein lies the real rub. Things can still get significantly worse, although I still feel quite confident that the Japan reactor will not have any direct impact on our health. (I specify direct, because I can imagine some indirect paths, such as tainted products from Japan, or just their economic health suffering in such a way to create a domino effect, etc.)


    for evolutionary purposes

     

    While I cherish my status as a platform for the production, transportation, and delivery of DNA, there are times when I can appreciate (in the medical parlance) a divergence of interest betwen me as an individual and the progress of the species.


    "Japan's damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima has been emitting radioactive iodine and caesium at levels approaching those seen in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Austrian researchers have used a worldwide network of radiation detectors – designed to spot clandestine nuclear bomb tests – to show that iodine-131 is being released at daily levels 73 per cent of those seen after the 1986 disaster. The daily amount of caesium-137 released from Fukushima Daiichi is around 60 per cent of the amount released from Chernobyl. ("New Scientist", March 24 ---thanks to Michael Collins "They said it wasn't like Chernobyl and they were wrong")

    http://www.counterpunch.com/whitney03282011.html


    wow.  I really have not been paying attention.  I confess that I sort of figured we weren't really in the Chernobyl zip code yet.


    Plutonium detected in soil at Fukushima nuke plant.

    Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Monday, adding to woes over radiation contamination in the country's worst nuclear crisis.

    The operator of the six-reactor complex said that the plutonium, the presence of which was confirmed for the first time in the ongoing nuclear emergency, could have been discharged from nuclear fuel at the plant hit by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, but does not pose a major risk to human health.

    Plutonium is more toxic than other radioactive substances such as iodine and cesium, but the levels confirmed from soil samples taken at the plant on March 21 and 22 were almost the same as those from the fallout detected in Japan following past nuclear tests by the United States and Russia, said the utility known as TEPCO.

    The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said it remains unknown which reactor plutonium came from and that TEPCO and the science ministry will strengthen monitoring on the environment both in the plant and outside of a 20-kilometer exclusion zone set by the government.

    Kind of like picking up a hay bail and having needles fall out at your feet.


    but does not pose a major risk to human health.

    I suppose it depends upon the meaning of "major".  I seem to recall widespread angst over the plutonium load of some satellite or other--I will google for details in a trice.


    It was the Cassini space craft that used plutonium to power it. Created quite a stir.


    Triggering "another martini for mother cabrini" in my labyrinthian subconcious where Lennie Bruce has been hiding ever since he faked his death...


    In my opinion, that was a lot of ado about nothing. The radiation coming out of a coal plant on a daily basis is far more of a concern. I'm not pro-nuclear, but I'm even more anti-coal. If the average person only knew about the radioactive uranium and thorium being spewed into the atmosphere by these things, I think it'd be easy to shut them down. It's bizarre how little attention is paid to such things.


    If the average person only knew

    well, he does now and he's even more pissed bout coal,,,


    Why, why, WHY ARE ALL ROOVES NOT PHOTOVOLTAIC???


    Here's the info georgewashington dug up, and probably some opinion:

    http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/03/comparing-japans-radiation-release-to.html


    o/t is that really his name?  I love the blog.


    Although alarming, keep in mind that at this point, it's still speculation. Granted, if I were living in the area, I would assume it's true until shown otherwise, but we shouldn't give up hope yet.


    "The radioactive core in a reactor at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant appears to have melted through the bottom"

    oops


    Apparently it doesn't take much time to dull our memories.  According to this:

    In 1992, the EPA produced a PAGs manual that answers many of these questions. But now an update to the 1992 manual is being planned, and if the “Dr. Strangelove” wing of the EPA has its way, here is what it means (brace yourself for these ludicrous increases):

    • A nearly 1000-fold increase for exposure to strontium-90;
    • A 3000 to 100,000-fold hike for exposure to iodine-131; and
    • An almost 25,000 rise for exposure to radioactive nickel-63.

    The new radiation guidelines would also allow long-term cleanup thresholds thousands of times more lax than anything EPA has ever judged safe in the past.

     


    new radiation guidelines

    I, for one, welcome our new three-eyed, five armed custodial staff...(see VA on the evolutionary impact of ionizing radiation, above)


    Maybe the extra appendages will be the magic bullet to lift our GDP, and get us out of the financial/economic morass we find ourselves in.  Maybe this is a strategy.


    5 arms good, 2 arms bad...


    Keep in mind, that just like The Invisible Hand, evolution knows best. If 5 arms weren't better, then we wouldn't have whupped your sorry 2-handed selves.


    I can see that now.  One gun on each hip, one in each shoulder holster, and a *pancake in back.

     

    *inside joke for gun fanciers, others may google.


    Just to be clear, and to mirror stardust's comments below a bit (but to take it up yet another notch), evolution is primarily about reproductive ability. Think about the advantages of five arms now…


    Two for hugging, three for fighting off the competitors?


    Nah; workers are already producing at incredible rates for less money, fewer benefits.  Now the extra appendages might make for more interesting pole dancing, or something...


    more interesting pole dancing,

    As a careful student of the genre, may I say that the mind boggles, the senses reel...


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