Japan urges more evacuations as Prime Minister Kan addresses nation

[brentspeak]

Source: Washington Post

By David Nakamura, Friday, March 25, 8:27 AM

TOKYO-Japan on Friday expanded the evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, urging residents living within 19 miles of the facility to leave and saying radiation fears make it increasingly difficult to bring in basic supplies.

After maintaining for two weeks that residents could continue living 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) or more from the power plant, officials said those living as far as 30 kilometers (19 miles) away should consider evacuating voluntarily.

Those residents had already been advised to stay indoors as much as possible. The new recommendation seemed based largely on the issues of access to safe food and drinking water, rather than specific new information about radiation levels.

In a live television address, Prime Minister Naoto Kan called the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11 “very grave and serious.”

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-urges-more-evacuations-as-prime-minister-kan-addresses-nation/2011/03/25/AFKm2IVB_story.html?hpid=z2

[PoliticAverse]

1. The basic problem is this..

you can't really determine an evacuation zone based on a small distance like 12.5 or 19 miles.

Look at the map of the chernobyl fallout area and how far it went and how non uniform it is:

( From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Nuclear_Power_Plant_Exclusion_Zone )

Map Link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Chernobyl_radiation_map_1996.svg?map

[caraher]

4. But Chernobyl went wrong in a very different way

It's true that any deposition of fission products like Cs-137 and I-131 will not be in a neat orderly pattern that decreases monotonically with distance. But the Chernobyl plant had basically no containment, blew while operating and had its core burning for days afterward, all of which helped put fission products high in the air. As spectacular as the hydrogen explosions have been (outside containment), there are good reasons to expect that even if things take a turn for the worse (as if it isn't bad enough already!) these plants will not disperse radioactive materials quite as much.

And even your map does support evacuating the immediate area. What it really shows is the need to monitor a large region to discern whether other evacuations become necessary.

[PoliticAverse]

5. Yes, when chernobyl blew the plume apparently went several thousand feet high.

I don't think they still know for sure what exactly went up with the several explosions
at the reactors in Japan.

Ultimately they will have to map the radioactive fallout over a large area.

I will note this article:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/23_28.html

noting radiation levels 1,600 times normal (from Cesium-137) in the soil at a point 40km from the plants.

[marions ghost]

2. No surprise

considering...

[AsahinaKimi]

3. Please people

Be safe!! kiotsukete kudasai. (気をつけてください )

[eNrG]

6. This will be the worst ever

Well, the media is doing a bang up job at making sure every one thinks this is no big deal. The issue with this nuclear disaster is that they had their spent fuel rods with no containment above their reactors. Three reactors and one plutonium Mox reactor are in very serious trouble and have likely melted partially.

This means tons and tons of radionuclide and isotopes will be released into the environment. These particles attacked to organic matter and extend their half-life significantly. Xe-133 for instance has a half-life of 5.2 days but if it binds to organic matter such as you body, the half-life increases to up to 100 days. The entire time it is losing electrons, neutrons, and protons. Which when these atoms contact cells they destroy covalent bonds, even the ones in DNA strands. This is not something a Geiger counter will detect and not something any of these so called "Safe" factors take into consideration.

The current models for evaluating the risk from these types of disasters is completely ineffective at predicting the damage this will do to human life.
Source (http://vimeo.com/15382750).

The real evil that is being played out here is the fact that the governments and the people have no idea what the real risks are from this type of disaster. There is a massive difference between the radiation you receive from the sun, which is light radiation and protons, and the radiation received from this type of disaster which a small amount of external radiation, because uranium and plutonium don't emit much light. They emit particles which destroy covalent bonds in cells.

This will be remembered as 2 to 3 times worse than Chernobyl due to the fact that it is 4 reactors and one of which holds the nastiest material on the planet Plutonium.

[colorado_ufo]

7. Welcome to DU

and thank you for the extremely important input!

:hi:

[marions ghost]

8. +++++

thanks for your input.

[quabbin]

9. The pro nuke crowd is in major denial.

Very good read of what is actually occurring in Japan. There are folks here still clinging to the "it's comparable to Three Mile Island" meme. It's truly amazing how the pro-nuke crowd continues to defend the most dangerous method ever devised to create electricity. The events in Japan have shocked many of them. You would have a tough time getting them to admit it though. Because this event involved multiple failures of Western designed and constructed reactors, it will be the game changing event. Construction costs for new reactors in todays dollars would be astronomical. Insurance companies will continue to refuse to insure nuclear power. It's time to move away from this dangerous technology.

[cyberpj]

10. Welcome to DU and thanks for your info. Any way of knowing effects of ocean contamination?

First, because of the leakage but also because of them using then draining nearby sea water?

Has there ever been a release of radionuclide and isotopes into ocean or river water and would the trouble sink, or swim with the tides?

[lovuian]

11. I totally agree with you

they have no concept and neither does the world

but they will in time

and do the corporations think everything will continue on the same???

Poor Poor Japan ...my God the whole world should be there to help them