how depressingly worrying.
Lets recap some Fukushima elements:
Explosions have totally destroyed upper levels of reactor buildings, probably seriously damaging containment vessels - but certainly pulverising the stores of 'spent' fuel rods housed in water tanks in upper stories. The explosion of R3 was probably c.3000 feet straight up in the air in a huge grey dusty cloud....
worse...the older reactors used MOX, including that derived/recycled from decommissioned warheads - these are stored around the site and within the upper parts of reactor buildings. MOX contains plutonium and uranium, and is as bad as it gets in terms of hazards - far far worse than the caesium and iodine already reported in Japan.
If ever Evil could be made Manifest beyond the Human Mind, then MOX is It.
Plutonium in particular when in fine particulate form is deadly - it can be hard to detect (alpha emitter - ie not directly detected on Geiger counter), and minute airborne specks, if ingested/inhaled by organisms are massively damaging to to tissue in the long term (can bind directly to DNA molecules)
In dust form it is subject to the usual aeolian processes - then accumulation in alluvial systems and soil water etc....It might quickly become embedded in soil systems, which provides the key locking mechanism in terrestrial systems.....once locked in the soil it is much harder to affect us directly...plants will not absorb in particulate form (but wash soil of those veggies well!).
Herbivorous that might consume soil and dust particles incidentally with plant food present a bigger health risk, as they might well concentrate and accumulate contamination - hence milk products are particularly vulnerable. However others also....e.g. birds can consume soil/dust particles in many ways, as well as invertebrates they feed on.
How this might affect us (archaeologist, agricultural, construction, groundwork etc.) who also disturbed soils and release dust is unclear, but predictable...avoiding a dusting of particulate nuclide from wind borne systems is one thing - releasing that some dust with every trowel scrape (perhaps years later) is quite another....especially as Geiger readings on the surface will say 'safe'.....
That 'spent' rods are on fire in the exterior containment 'pools' is bad enough - up to 600,000 or more (yes that's right) are stored on site in exterior pools (now on fire) and (incredibly) directly above the main reactors themselves...how many are MOX is a big question (just heard up to 1,000 tons of MOX on site !!!!!!!that is a major catastrophe!!!)....especially as they are capable of reaching criticality and creating a massive self sustaining nuclear fire, far, far worse than Chernobyl.
However the biggest question at the moment is what happened to the rods that were stored in the exploded reactor buildings- R3 ejected its upper levels 3000 feet into the sky in a single blast and massive dust cloud....there is nothing left of the upper levels in 3 of the 6 reactors where there have also been explosions and continuous fires for 6 days....is plutonium and uranium dust already circulating in the wind?
the dust is now carried by the Jet Stream east from Japan - first the US (over west coast on Sunday) or Canada or both, then the Atlantic, then.....
well ...our cold winter snaps etc. here in the UK over the last few years are as consequence of that same Jet Stream moving south to sit directly over Old Blightly....so do the Math.
Damage to marine life might by huge.
How bad will this get?
Sustained/Large ejections into the jet stream could be very very bad if plutonium etc are present...for the UK: well, we got only a tiny whiff of Chernobyle on this fair isle - as most ejected material headed west across Russia....(eventually to encircle the northern hemisphere...)
this time, after a c.3-5 week (?) delay, it will likely be heading right at us on the Jet Stream Express....
We need to all keep a close eye on this ongoing situation...it has just gone from worse to extremely fucking bad, to worser, and worser still over the last 6 days....when/what will the Worse-est be?
With a large and sustained particulate ejection of MOX we may have major health risks right across society - professionals who work outside might be more exposed to initial and ongoing dust fall, and while dust is available on surface - those who are exposed daily to particulate soil matter (dust) may be exposed for many years afterwards (even if original dust fall can be avoided or is small).......do we (archaeologist) need a plan for this?
What about the rest? How else might this affect our lives?
The very best case scenario is that Fukushima becomes a massive concrete and steel toxic tomb, in a many mile exclusion zone, and ongoing health problems for very many Japanese people, especially for the hundreds needed to work the clean-up....the worst is orders of magnitude greater, for significant portions of world population....
50 tons of (non-spent?)fuel at Chernobyl - perhaps 1,700 tons(non-spent?) or more at Fukushima
Chernobyl: 1 reactor - 1 explosion - 1 day of fire - 8 days of steam release
Fukushima No.1: 4 reactors in partial meltdown, fires in huge stored rod caches, - 4 explosions - 6+ days of fires and steam release
..........do the Math.
And the tons of MOX is probably still capable of explosive fission reaction if not cooled.
Where/How to get info?...difficult...Japanese Government and TEPCo definitely not being straight about events and situation...US government + UK government + others also highly unlikely to release Very Bad News 'as it happens'...
Lets recap some Fukushima elements:
Explosions have totally destroyed upper levels of reactor buildings, probably seriously damaging containment vessels - but certainly pulverising the stores of 'spent' fuel rods housed in water tanks in upper stories. The explosion of R3 was probably c.3000 feet straight up in the air in a huge grey dusty cloud....
worse...the older reactors used MOX, including that derived/recycled from decommissioned warheads - these are stored around the site and within the upper parts of reactor buildings. MOX contains plutonium and uranium, and is as bad as it gets in terms of hazards - far far worse than the caesium and iodine already reported in Japan.
If ever Evil could be made Manifest beyond the Human Mind, then MOX is It.
Plutonium in particular when in fine particulate form is deadly - it can be hard to detect (alpha emitter - ie not directly detected on Geiger counter), and minute airborne specks, if ingested/inhaled by organisms are massively damaging to to tissue in the long term (can bind directly to DNA molecules)
In dust form it is subject to the usual aeolian processes - then accumulation in alluvial systems and soil water etc....It might quickly become embedded in soil systems, which provides the key locking mechanism in terrestrial systems.....once locked in the soil it is much harder to affect us directly...plants will not absorb in particulate form (but wash soil of those veggies well!).
Herbivorous that might consume soil and dust particles incidentally with plant food present a bigger health risk, as they might well concentrate and accumulate contamination - hence milk products are particularly vulnerable. However others also....e.g. birds can consume soil/dust particles in many ways, as well as invertebrates they feed on.
How this might affect us (archaeologist, agricultural, construction, groundwork etc.) who also disturbed soils and release dust is unclear, but predictable...avoiding a dusting of particulate nuclide from wind borne systems is one thing - releasing that some dust with every trowel scrape (perhaps years later) is quite another....especially as Geiger readings on the surface will say 'safe'.....
That 'spent' rods are on fire in the exterior containment 'pools' is bad enough - up to 600,000 or more (yes that's right) are stored on site in exterior pools (now on fire) and (incredibly) directly above the main reactors themselves...how many are MOX is a big question (just heard up to 1,000 tons of MOX on site !!!!!!!that is a major catastrophe!!!)....especially as they are capable of reaching criticality and creating a massive self sustaining nuclear fire, far, far worse than Chernobyl.
However the biggest question at the moment is what happened to the rods that were stored in the exploded reactor buildings- R3 ejected its upper levels 3000 feet into the sky in a single blast and massive dust cloud....there is nothing left of the upper levels in 3 of the 6 reactors where there have also been explosions and continuous fires for 6 days....is plutonium and uranium dust already circulating in the wind?
the dust is now carried by the Jet Stream east from Japan - first the US (over west coast on Sunday) or Canada or both, then the Atlantic, then.....
well ...our cold winter snaps etc. here in the UK over the last few years are as consequence of that same Jet Stream moving south to sit directly over Old Blightly....so do the Math.
Damage to marine life might by huge.
How bad will this get?
Sustained/Large ejections into the jet stream could be very very bad if plutonium etc are present...for the UK: well, we got only a tiny whiff of Chernobyle on this fair isle - as most ejected material headed west across Russia....(eventually to encircle the northern hemisphere...)
this time, after a c.3-5 week (?) delay, it will likely be heading right at us on the Jet Stream Express....
We need to all keep a close eye on this ongoing situation...it has just gone from worse to extremely fucking bad, to worser, and worser still over the last 6 days....when/what will the Worse-est be?
With a large and sustained particulate ejection of MOX we may have major health risks right across society - professionals who work outside might be more exposed to initial and ongoing dust fall, and while dust is available on surface - those who are exposed daily to particulate soil matter (dust) may be exposed for many years afterwards (even if original dust fall can be avoided or is small).......do we (archaeologist) need a plan for this?
What about the rest? How else might this affect our lives?
The very best case scenario is that Fukushima becomes a massive concrete and steel toxic tomb, in a many mile exclusion zone, and ongoing health problems for very many Japanese people, especially for the hundreds needed to work the clean-up....the worst is orders of magnitude greater, for significant portions of world population....
50 tons of (non-spent?)fuel at Chernobyl - perhaps 1,700 tons(non-spent?) or more at Fukushima
Chernobyl: 1 reactor - 1 explosion - 1 day of fire - 8 days of steam release
Fukushima No.1: 4 reactors in partial meltdown, fires in huge stored rod caches, - 4 explosions - 6+ days of fires and steam release
..........do the Math.
And the tons of MOX is probably still capable of explosive fission reaction if not cooled.
Where/How to get info?...difficult...Japanese Government and TEPCo definitely not being straight about events and situation...US government + UK government + others also highly unlikely to release Very Bad News 'as it happens'...