What Does A Nuclear Leak/Meltdown in Japan Mean for the World?

[Anonymous]

Quasimodo! That's awesome. Yeah, or maybe Nostradamus.

[Anonymous]

What's really scary is we have 4 reactors on the west coast that are not protected from earthquakes or tsunamis.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/11-12

[Anonymous]

Why didn't the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki affect the US? Or did it? Can't the wind just blow it all over the globe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why didn't the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki affect the US? Or did it? Can't the wind just blow it all over the globe?

Yup. We are all connected; one world kind of thing. Otherwise the US might not give a puck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is important to note that the Chernobyl reactor had no containment building to speak of (it was basically a tin shed) around the reactor. It also had graphite in the reactor core that caught on fire, and the smoke from the fire is what spread the radiation after the top blew off the building. The Japanese reactor does not have graphite in the reactor. Unlike Chernobyl, the Japanese reactors have thick concrete and rebar containment vessels around the reactor. The Japanese are saying that containment has not been breached. The reactor has been shut down, so it's just a question of dissipating residual heat at this point. Even if the reactor were to melt down, it is likely to be more similar to our Three Mile Island accident, which made a mess inside the containment building, but released almost no radiation to the environment.

Thanks for such a great, informative response!

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine in Japan said they are predicting another big earthquake in a month or so (not sure how they know this) and are still experiencing aftershocks. I wonder what will happen then.

[Anonymous]

First of miscarriages will rise for hundreds of miles..Then years from now cancer rates will rise. But you wont hear any of this because they don't normally count babies lost that early and the cancers will be down the road so no one will care enough by then to make the connection. My dad died a horrible death after years of low radiation exposure at a nuclear facility. His co workers are also getting sick. Of course you wont ever hear about any of that either : (

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is important to note that the Chernobyl reactor had no containment building to speak of (it was basically a tin shed) around the reactor. It also had graphite in the reactor core that caught on fire, and the smoke from the fire is what spread the radiation after the top blew off the building. The Japanese reactor does not have graphite in the reactor. Unlike Chernobyl, the Japanese reactors have thick concrete and rebar containment vessels around the reactor. The Japanese are saying that containment has not been breached. The reactor has been shut down, so it's just a question of dissipating residual heat at this point. Even if the reactor were to melt down, it is likely to be more similar to our Three Mile Island accident, which made a mess inside the containment building, but released almost no radiation to the environment.

Good point; we can also add in the fact that the Japanese gov't will be *far* more open about things than the Soviet government was. In fact, it was only when a Swedish nuclear plant detected high levels of radiation did the story start to come out.

On the other hand, this will remain salient enough in American audiences to continue the nervousness that was increased with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. (I don't know if Chalk River -- the Canadian accident in the 1950s when Jimmy Carter led a team that mitigated the situation -- made the news in a similar way or not.) But I do notice that openness to expanded nuclear presence dissipated in the early 2000s, and was a major part of Republican energy policies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of miscarriages will rise for hundreds of miles..Then years from now cancer rates will rise. But you wont hear any of this because they don't normally count babies lost that early and the cancers will be down the road so no one will care enough by then to make the connection. My dad died a horrible death after years of low radiation exposure at a nuclear facility. His co workers are also getting sick. Of course you wont ever hear about any of that either : (

I can't see how this could be true based on the radiation levels reported so far. But if this is how you feel about radiation, you probably should not fly in an airplane.

[Anonymous]

The Washington Post has a good interactive info piece on this today, including a graphic on the amounts of radiation released so far, which is minor. So far, the containment system has held, even though the tsunami was larger than anything predicted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why didn't the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki affect the US? Or did it? Can't the wind just blow it all over the globe?

No the US was not effected the bombing was different radiation... The radiation in the nuclear plant can spread global but only if enough material is released out of the core, and if that material is high enough to travel right now it's low and not high enough in the air to travel and the radiation now is diluted by the time it reaches the 400 mile mark in the sea... the US is 5k miles away.... it would take alot of material radiation to actually make it to the US to make it life death, or a health issue we take in 100 radiation every year, 500 radiation you become sick 1000 cancer 5000 it will kill you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:First of miscarriages will rise for hundreds of miles..Then years from now cancer rates will rise. But you wont hear any of this because they don't normally count babies lost that early and the cancers will be down the road so no one will care enough by then to make the connection. My dad died a horrible death after years of low radiation exposure at a nuclear facility. His co workers are also getting sick. Of course you wont ever hear about any of that either : (

PP I'm so sorry that your Dad suffered so. Was this a facility in the US? It is criminal that workers have to be exposed these conditions. There really is no way to make nuclear power safe I'm sorry to say.