Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumIs The Government Stockpiling Iodine In Preparation for Fukushima Meltdown? Anthony Gucciardi
http://www.storyleak.com/government-stockpiling-iodine-fukushima-meltdown/Following the revelation that The Department of Health and Human Services has ordered 14 million doses of potassium iodide to be available by no later then the first of February,
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=5cd0c1800435272c80ad292aeb9d1ba7&tab=core&tabmode=list&
it is easy to see that the same federal government responsible for silently raising the allowable limits of radiation in the food supply and turning off key radiation counters positioned in the west coast may now silently be preparing for a future Fukushima meltdown.
The same type of Fukushima plant meltdown that has been predicted by leading scientists, such as those who spoke out against Fukushimas dangers while attending the scientific symposium at the University of Alberta just a few months ago. Scientists like David Suzuki went on record in stating that Fukushima is just an earthquake away from devastating Japan and swallowing other nations with its radioactive fallout....And Suzuki is not the only one with major concerns. In fact, Suzuki is perhaps one of the very few who actually received media attention due to his celebrity status as a recipient of 16 significant academic awards and host of the popular CBC Television program entitled The Nature of Things. Yale University professor Charles Perrow has voiced similar concerns in a telling piece entitled Fukushima Forever, which highlights the very serious threat of nuclear meltdown as a result of human error when it comes to removing the plants spent fuel rods...A danger that the United States government certainly recognizes as legitimate based on the analysis of top experts, and undoubtedly is silently preparing for behind the scenes.
Perrow writes:
Much more serious is the danger that the spent fuel rod pool at the top of the nuclear plant number four will collapse in a storm or an earthquake, or in a failed attempt to carefully remove each of the 1,535 rods and safely transport them to the common storage pool 50 meters away. Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.
And silently stockpiling iodine is certainly the way that The Department of Health and Human Services would prepare for such an event. As of this morning, a government source has told me that this purchase is indeed bizarre given the quantity and delivery time frame (requiring a whopping 14 million doses by February 1st), and it goes alongside preparations we have seen in the past where the official response will likely play off the mega purchase as a routine bulk acquisition with no real urgency or threat.
The reality is that even getting a hold of low quality potassium iodide, which I would not ever personally take over a higher quality form of pure iodine, is becoming difficult as the population becomes aware of Fukushimas expansive dangers. Many manufacturers are now stockpiling raw iodine and holding on to the element as a form of investment with the knowledge that Fukushima may very well meltdown in the coming months...
Berlum
(7,044 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)PamW
(1,825 posts)The ONLY thing that Iodine is useful for is blocking radioactive Iodine.
Iodine isn't some magical cure or preventative for all radiation. No - what iodine does is load up your thyroid with iodine.
If you do that; your thyroid won't uptake any other iodine. The Iodine that you are guarding against is radioactive.
Radio-Iodine or I-131 which is what nuclear fission produces has a half-life of 8 days.
In a span of about 20 half-lives; the radioactive species has essentially decayed away. So for I-131; the half-life is 8 days or about a week. So in about 20 weeks; or about 5 months; the I-131 is essentially all gone. It has decayed away.
We are now almost 3 years since the Fukushima accident; and any I-131 is LONG GONE.
Criticality of 3% to 4% enriched fuel REQUIRES the lattice of fuel rods surrounded by water in order to achieve criticality.
In a lattice, of proper geometry; the neutrons are born in the fuel, leak into the surrounding water where they can slow down out of the presence of the Uranium-238 and its parasitic absorption resonances. Only when the neutrons are slowed to thermal energies do they re-enter the fuel rods to cause fission at the high fission cross-sections found at low neutron energies. That's why an intact reactor can go critical and sustain a chain reaction.
The melted corium has water and fuel mixed. When neutrons slow down, they do so in the presence of Uranium-238; and hence are subject to parasitic absorption.
If you calculate what is called the "k-infinity" of corium; which is the neutron multiplication factor if you had an infinite amount of the stuff; it is less than unity; and hence corium can't sustain a chain reaction.
So the Iodine-131 is ALL GONE and the melted Fukushima reactors can NOT make any more.
Therefore, there is ZERO need for anybody to stockpile iodine due to Fukushima.
PamW
PamW
Demeter
(85,373 posts)But that SCIENTIFIC FACTS are that there will NOT be any Iodine-131 coming from Fukushima in the future.
It doesn't matter WHAT happens.
The Iodine-131 that was created in the reactor prior to the accident is GONE.
The reactors can't create any new Iodine-131
PamW
FBaggins
(26,727 posts)Though it would be usable long after that point, all drug manufacturers are required to state a shelf life for their medications. For KI it's most often in the 6-7 year range.
The federal government is required to have many millions of doses available since (for instance) the NRC is required to stockpile it for each population within a distance (10 miles IIRC) of a reactor. So there's a constantly rotating stock that must be replaced.
Therefore... orders like this likely happen every year (possibly multiple times per year).
Javaman
(62,510 posts)FogerRox
(13,211 posts)be connected to Iodine purchases today?
There is no connection.
A high school education is enough to handle the science.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)When did that happen?
Demeter
(85,373 posts)a complete list, with links to sources.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Not that I saw, anyway. I did a Google search on the phrase "turning off key radiation counters" and I got a link to the StoryLeak article in the OP, and a link to the same article posted on InfoWars.
https://www.google.com/#q=turning+off+key+radiation+counters
I'm calling bullshit on that claim unless I see it backed up somewhere. The situation is serious enough as it is without unnecessary hype. Especially hype from sources that are banned from DU for being unreliable.
FBaggins
(26,727 posts)The problem is that suddenly hundreds of thousands of people started watching data that they had no experience interpreting. It isn't at all uncommon for several of them to be offline, but why would the conspiracy theorists believe that? They saw lots of readings from active monitors that showed just what the experts expected... increased radiation but well below any threshold of danger. Ah... but there were gaps in the map. So the CT nutcases decided that there really were dangerous levels of radiation hitting parts of the US, but the EPA was intentionally turning off the monitors in those areas to hide it from us!
In reality... the EPA actually increased sampling and reporting in the wake of the Fukushima accident. A couple months after the accident (after levels dropped back to normal) they returned to their normal testing/reporting levels... and again the CT Nutcases (tm) went nuts imagining that the EPA was yet again hiding the truth from us.
With some of the fringe... the fairy tale lasts to this day... and no amount of evidence will convince a TrueBeliever (tm)
Here, for instance, is an archive of EPA readings and press releases at the time. Not that it will do you any good.
http://www.epa.gov/japan011/rert/radnet-data-map.html
arcane1
(38,613 posts)We're trying to needlessly freak people out over here, and you're not helping
This claim is a bunch of GARBAGE that the anti-nukes have been attempting to sell.
The Universities along the West Coast all had their radiation detection equipment looking for Fukushima radiation.
The University of California - Berkeley had their radiation detectors scanning for Fukushima radiation.
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling
The national laboratories on the west coast also were scanning.
It's a bunch of conspiratorial NONSENSE.
Why would the Government attempt to cover-up for the Japanese; especially when all the Universities on the coast, which are not under control of the Government would be publishing their results.
The TRUTH of the matter is that the Universities did find the Fukushima radiation; but it was TRIVIAL.
It's EXACTLY what scientists expected to see. They knew how much was released, we had measurements closer to Japan, and one can calculate the dispersion, and how TRIVIAL the amounts of radiation would be. That's what was seen; TRIVIAL.
I know the anti-nukes have been attempting to make a mountain of this smaller than normal molehill; but facts are facts and the science is what the science is.
TRIVIAL amounts of Fukushima radiation were detected; and there's no big conspiratorial cover-up on the part of the Government.
PamW