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Small Cabin Forum / Off Topic / What would you do if Fukashima Reactor 4 blew?
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groingo
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 16:28
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Being that I live in Western Washington I am concerned.

The plans I am making are to get my Passport and a Visa for Argentina or Melborne Australia and to move there till it is safe to come back.

The way I see it, according to the Jetstream maps if it goes the US is pretty much toast but definitely the West Coast and if you wait to hear it on the news or net then mass panic will already take place and you will never get to where you want to be.

Anyone else considering what if?

Just
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 16:37
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You can run but you can't hide.. I'm going to stay home and try and make the world a better place..

bobrok
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 17:05
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I would venture that many of us (certainly myself) live downwind from a reactor.
I agree with Just.

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 17:48
Reply 


I have lots of food, potassium iodide and duct tape. :D

beachman
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 17:53
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I guess I would do what they taught us to do in grade school during the Cuban missile crisis - crouch in the basement with my head between my legs and kiss my butt goodbye.

Dillio187
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 18:56
Reply 


grow a third arm. Imagine what you could do with an extra arm?

Ideally though, it depends on what really happens. I certainly wouldn't rush out and buy any pacific seafood, or Washington apples (sorry toyota_mdt_tech :D )

davey25
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 18:57
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Why would it blow? That seems a bit absurd?

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 20:14
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Quoting: Dillio187
I certainly wouldn't rush out and buy any pacific seafood, or Washington apples (sorry toyota_mdt_tech :D )


LOL, I do not like seafood, so that is resolved. All my food is freeze dried in large buckets. Enough to last me and the wife 3 months. The potassium iodide will keep my thyroid from absorbing radiation and the duct tape will seal my windows/doors. I'd bug out to my cabin, its on the eastern side of my state.

bobrok
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 20:16
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Back in the mid 70's we had an 'event' at a reactor that lies about 20 miles straight-line upwind from our town. We all survived that.
Before that I went to college for four years and then worked in the same town afterward for several years all while living less than 10 miles from two very large reactors.
After a while you forget they exist.
OTOH the cooling towers and plumes make for great landmarks when your out on the lake fishing.

fpw
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 20:19
Reply 


Fact on fukushima Daiichi;

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/ops-experience/japan-dashboard/ref-library.html

davey25
Member
# Posted: 2 Dec 2013 22:24
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I work in the reactor every day..no biggie...

hattie
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 12:22 - Edited by: hattie
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I think fukushima is in a lot worse shape then we are being told. I feel main stream media isn't talking about it because they don't want people to panic and, realistically, there isn't much any of us can do about it anyway. It is probably just a matter of time before it blows and when it does, that will be the end of most of us.

The world is in pretty bad shape right now and it is probably due to have the reset button pushed. I don't doubt some will survive and hopefully they will be young and smart and will repopulate the planet and remember the lessons learned from this time.

It is just a part of the cycle of this planet. Civilizations die from war, famine, whatever and then things get rebuilt. Since you have a plan, you could very well be one of the survivors groingo. As for us, I'm sure we won't be but at least we've had one heck of a ride while we were here. *smile*

Rossman
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 13:32
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Quoting: groingo
Being that I live in Western Washington I am concerned.


Why? Did anyone care when the US dropped two nukes on Japan? Did that affect anyone (in the US)? Nope.

Why worry about things like this that are never going to amount to anything...such wasted energies.

silverwaterlady
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 15:23
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I'm more worried about surviving being out on the road as an OTR trucker. My life and my husbands are at risk 24/7. There are some really crazy people out here.

Malamute
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 17:26
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I think the perceived danger is overblown. The Russian reactor at Chernoble blew, it didn't wipe out the world. Scads of above ground nukes were set off in testing, and most of us survived, including those that lived fairly close. There was an increase in cancers among those that lived close to the Nevada test site, but by no means a scorched earth of desolation. There are even people alive today that survived the blasts at Nagasaki and Hiroshima. No, radiation isn't too good for you in excessive amounts, but a large amount of it would fall out coming over the ocean, hence the term fallout, its physically heavy. Rain tends to wash much of it out of the air when travelling, as does simple distance. There wasn't a huge spike in radiation when Fukishima first went, including watching independant monitoring networks (google it).

The greatest danger from whatever we could get this far away is to children, adults don't tend to absorb enough to make a huge difference in their health past their teens I believe. Some dairy products can concentrate radioactivity to a degree, but again, most of the danger is to children. Waiting to use dairy products until several weeks after whatever may make its way this far would take care of most of the increased radioactivity. Cows kept inside during that time would be alright for the most part also.

Theres a lot of misunderstanding about radiation. We have background levels of radiation almost everywhere. It takes quite a lot more than normal background to begin to cause problems. Taking iodine supplements is also generally misunderstood. They should only be taken shortly before exposure (like hours to a day IIRC) and not taken for long periods of time. Only those at highest risk generally need to take them also, like children.

Some of the radioactive elements have very short half lives, sstill ome are greatly reduced even by the time they can get here from Japan. There are a number of different elements, just saying "radioactivity" is a pretty broad term. Some are more harmful than others. Study up on it. I did when Fukashima first happened. I quit worrying so much about it after learning more and watching the radiation monitoring networks and seeing peoples own readings stay basically level (within whats considered normal background levels) through the first cycle of air coming over from Japan.

Brknarow
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 18:46
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I assume groingo is inferring a 'china syndrome' event which is where Fukashima's melt down seems to heading. It evidently never stopped folks; the media just stopped talking about it.

davey25
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 20:31
Reply 


Man we got some real paranoids here lol..I guess if your not educated on the nuclear business then you may be afraid

silverwaterlady
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 20:44
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It's not as bad as some of the prepper/survivalist web sites. According to those people we are getting very close to the TEOTWAWKI.

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 3 Dec 2013 21:46 - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
Reply 


Quoting: Malamute
Taking iodine supplements is also generally misunderstood



IODIDE, not iodine. No wonder its misunderstood. Its misspelled and miss pronounced.

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp

Nirky
Member
# Posted: 4 Dec 2013 02:50 - Edited by: Nirky
Reply 


Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech
IODIDE, not iodine. No wonder its misunderstood. Its misspelled and miss pronounced.


Potassium iodide is a salt of stable iodine. It can help block the absorbtion of radioactive iodine.

The radioactive iodine finds its way to the thyroid, but when it gets there it finds there is no room at the inn so to speak, because the iodide salts pills have been converted into safe iodine saturating the thyroid, and with nowhere else to go in the body, the radioactive iodine is flushed out. That's why the iodide treatment is commonly called "iodine tablets". Malamute used the word correctly.

From what I know, nuclear power plants can't "blow", they can produce nuclear fission & high radiation. But the fuel is not enriched to a level where it can go "critical"--where runaway fission quickly produces an uncontrollable chain reaction & explodes. They can however melt down & leak. Which is what Fukushima did on a limited scale. And I agree the authorities as a rule downplay the severity, it's always worse than they say.

Nevertheless, although being in the pacific northwest, I don't lose any sleep about it. If dangerous levels were detected here in the US I'm confident we'd hear about it from some source.

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 4 Dec 2013 09:08
Reply 


Quoting: Nirky
That's why the iodide treatment is commonly called "iodine tablets". Malamute used the word correctly.



OK, I was using the term on the bottles I have and what is used on the CDC website.

From the CDC website:

What is Potassium Iodide (KI)?

KI (potassium iodide) is a salt of stable (not radioactive) iodine that can help block radioactive iodine from being absorbed by the thyroid gland, thus protecting this gland from radiation injury.

The thyroid gland is the part of the body that is most sensitive to radioactive iodine.


So it appears we are both right.

Link again if anyone wants to read
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/radiation/ki.asp

Rossman
Member
# Posted: 4 Dec 2013 13:06 - Edited by: Rossman
Reply 


Quoting: Brknarow
I assume groingo is inferring a 'china syndrome' event which is where Fukashima's melt down seems to heading.


You do realize that a "china syndrome" is a fictional event, right? That is, it's not a real thing, nor would it ever happen?

At the very least can you please read the wiki page for things you are about to talk about, to spare yourself complete embarrassment?

Quoting: davey25
Man we got some real paranoids here lol..I guess if your not educated on the nuclear business then you may be afraid


Man, you got that right!

Brknarow
Member
# Posted: 4 Dec 2013 17:12
Reply 


And if you'd read your wiki page just a few more inches. You'd see that the movie 'The China Syndrome' was based on the hypothetical report by nuclear physicist Ralph Lapp who first used the term.

I don't know if it 'would never happen' as I don't have magical abilities and would never make such a definitive statement based on possibilities. But I have side-stepped feeling completely embarrassed, thank you for your concern.

Danielcan
Member
# Posted: 4 Dec 2013 21:13
Reply 


However the partial meltdown created a molten core that got exactly 15 millimeters to "China" before the core froze at the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel.[33]

Lol, I love Wikipedia.

Malamute
Member
# Posted: 4 Dec 2013 22:54 - Edited by: Malamute
Reply 


This is an independent radiation monitoring network. It turned up in some discussions elsewhere when the Fukushima plant first had problems after the quake/tsunami.

http://www.radiationnetwork.com/

Regarding the iodine/iodate tablets or supplements, in the profoundly unlikely event of a true unhealthy level of radiation being present in your neighborhood (several thousand miles away does NOT count) there is a way to use betadine as an iodine supplement. I'll look and see if I can find the info I saw before. A ceratain amount of skin (sq inches) is painted with the betadine to absorb, loading the thyroid to block absorbtion of unhealthy elements. again, this whole concept seems widely misunderstood. IT IS NOT something you do over a long period of time, but do hours before exposure to a known risk. ITS NOT LIKE VITAMINS!!!!! Not even every type of radioactive elements are indicated to use a supplement, only certain types. I hesitate to even mention it because most people completely misunderstand the entire concept of supplements, of the risk of exposure, and how radioactive particles travel and affect places not in the immediate vicinity of the event. Most people simply go into freak-out mode when anything to do with RADIATION!!!(OMG!!!) comes up.

I agree that the powers that be handling the Fukushime plant aren't telling all they know, but we do know that an event that far away, and of its potential effect, are NOT the end of the world. Yes, its a problem, but being thousands of miles away has a huge bearing on potential risks. I'm not trying to say its a total non-event, I'm saying most don't understand what it all means and have overeacted to the true level of risk. I'm not an apologist for nuke plants, am not a fan of them, don't think they are the salvation of our way of life, I'm saying learn more about them and the real potential for risk if they concern you. I'm paying attention to this, but so far haven't seen anything that leads me to believe its much of a risk here from whats happened so far.

groingo
Member
# Posted: 4 Dec 2013 23:33
Reply 


The site to go to for real time readings in Japan is here: http://www.bousai.ne.jp/eng/

The Downwind sites for South Korea is here: http://iernet.kins.re.kr/

And of course the best US site is the Radiation Network as mentioned above: http://www.radiationnetwork.com/

The concern about this plant is TEPCOS shady operation of it where they are finding broken fuel rods in reactor 4 that were never reported or removed dating back to the 1980's, the site is not as scarey as the shoddy operation that the Japanese Government allows that continues to this day at this plant.

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 5 Dec 2013 09:06
Reply 


Looks like some thieves from Mexico who stole a truck hauling Cobalt 60 and opened it, resulting in certain death (in around 3 days max, gravely ill now) sure wishes they had a little Potassium Iodide on hand. Of course, they would of needed to take 135 mg a few hours prior to the incident.

Dillio187
Member
# Posted: 5 Dec 2013 10:18 - Edited by: Dillio187
Reply 


the iodide is only good for Iodine 131 absorption, they were screwed the minute they opened the case on that Co60 source.


Here is another one that happened that I've read about before.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samut_Prakan_radiation_accident

silverwaterlady
Member
# Posted: 5 Dec 2013 10:23
Reply 


That truck would have radioactive placards on it. Those theifs are really dumb!

davey25
Member
# Posted: 5 Dec 2013 10:44
Reply 


Watch pandoras promise

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