For all of those concerned about a cloud of radiation

thanks for the advice mr nuclearre expert

Are U Serious?

just bought this... in case

Given how old you are, you should have learned by now that one can never say never... Likelihood is low but then again I'm sure they thought the likelihood of 3 reactors possibly going into meltdown was very low as well. Situations can always align to make things bad. Course I noticed you used the word "catastrophic" and everyone would have a different opinion of what that could mean.

Any issues in the states wouldn't be directly from any radiation. It would be from the subsequent economic effects. It's already bad. Now imagine food crops affected, possibly for years, costs go up. Imports from Japan go down and thus costs go up. People put less money into the economy etc. etc. etc.

How many things have happened in the last few years that no one believed there was any likelihood of?

does the schmoke get in your eyes with that? how do you like it?

You are spending money with thoughts of increasing your chances of survival - good idea!

bot failure

You are sort of right, sort of wrong.

Radiation in steam released in Japan this week is very low, with much of it having a half life of only 8 days. It can still cause cancer in anyone who breathes it in, gets in on their skin, etc. These are controlled releases to keep the pressure in the cooling system down.

It's been said that some of the earlier steam contained something which I forget now - whatever control rods are made out of - that can last for 30 years or more. If this is the case, it means that there was at least a partial meltdown. Scary? Dangerous? Yes, but not for the whole world... range is short, half life is 30 years, and it can be decontaminated.

The big danger of a meltdown is the metals become so hot, they melt through the containment buildings, into the ground to the water table, instantly boiling the water and sending a huge plume of radioactive steam into the atmosphere. This is much worse.

It still does not compare to the bombs detonated between 1945 and 1980. The bombs produce pressure waves and tremendous heat that destroy everything around it, and shoot up tons of dust from the earth made radioactive by the bombs themselves.

Powerplants cannot explode like A-bombs or H-Bombs nor can they create damage or pollute the way bombs do. The association that people make between nuclear power plants and nuclear bombs is hurting the world, not helping it.

Since "The China Syndrome" and the Two Mile Island accident 1979, people have been terrified of nuclear power. People forget though that even though there was some radiation released, there was no melt down, no injuries, no burns, no deaths associated with this accident. Of course this didn't stop Jane Fonda who was against nuclear weapons before hand (which is fine), became anti nuclear-energy after TMI and wrongly associated the 2 completely different forms of nuclear energy many times.

There is great book called "The Day we Bombed Utah", and a really good documentary called "The Atom Bomb Movie", narrated by William Shatner. Both highly recommended for those interested in this kind of thing.

What advice would that be...as I did not offer any advice.

On German news, they said they released 400 millisievert into the air. That is quite a lot.

whoever that poster is, he's a dipshit for no apparent reason.

Someone posted this the other day. Don't know the source or what it was based on.

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really? http://www.ieer.org/comments/fallout/pr0202.html

wow, i havent had a good shot of Strontium 90, since the 60's ...

I am aware of reports of cancers and other medical problems being attributed to atmospheric tests.

I just had an iodine breakfast just in case ...