Listening to the live feed from Japan - this is absolutely surreal...

[NRaleighLiberal]

they are asking people to brush off their clothes and shoes before going into the house if they are in the 20-30 KM zone near plant 1 (forgive me if I don't have this quite right). Brush it off - with what? Hands? A broom? something that will then have radioactive materials stuck to them? Stay indoors - close windows - again - surreal, frightening - I am just hoping that they can get ahead of this, but the situation sounds so complex with multiple issues in multiple reactors.

Nikkei down 13% in not quite two days of trading.

Edited to add: now urging people within 20 Km radius from plant 1 to evacuate (apparently nearly all have already). Radiation levels going up - danger of further leakages.

This is the link I am watching/listening to - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nhk-world-tv

edited to add the link seems to have gone down at 1115 est...hoping it comes back. Here is the channel's home page -
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/ which works (had to download a plug in to get it to work on Chrome)

This link was just posted on TPM - gives a good, reasonably current summary - http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?_r=1&hp

[EFerrari]

1. .

:(

[Lasher]

6. ..

Me too.

[leftstreet]

2. Thanks for that link

You're right...surreal

[virgogal]

3. One poor guy said that he lost his home in the tsunami and that

now he's being told to stay indoors.

[liberalmuse]

4. Yep - I was an NBC NCO at one time...

our decon "training" for a detonated nuke scenario consisted of wearing MOPP gear and brushing off each others clothes, then continuing our mission. Yes, that's about it and I got what that meant.

[hedgehog]

5. Talk about surreal - weather report on now.

[Cleita]

7. Duck and cover?

Same thing to make you feel better about your chances of avoiding radiation. Like the iodine pills they give us in my area just in case our nuke has trouble, but those pills only protect against thyroid cancer, not any other kind that can result from radiation.

[originalpckelly]

8. Too bad they can't hand out duck tape and plastic sheeting.

I mean that seriously, too. Now we all see why it might have been necessary, right?

[NMDemDist2]

9. GMTA

sigh

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. And now there is a fire at # 4 reactor, which has been shut down.

Japan live tv in English also here:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/

the situation is getting worse and worse......

"the concentration of radioactive substances is getting higher and higher" says tv.

[BillyJack]

11. My understanding, which is VERY POOR admittedly, is that beta particles

which are easily STOPPED/Shielded (sp?) from can get trapped in hair & clothing, etc. And if they are NOT REMOVED can-and-will cause BURNS to the skin.

Alpha rays - easily shielded
Beta rays -pretty easily shielded (brushing off, burning contaminated clothes, etc.)
Gamma rays - difficult to shield

Gamma rays, which must be shielded by lead, concrete, huge amounts of earth are the long-term damaging ones.

Please correct me if I am wrong. Or better yet, please someone with a better understanding of these things explain in the context of "how best to protect oneself" under these circumstances.

TIA

[nebenaube]

12. Yep...

It's my understanding that such action may reduce superficial burns but the likelihood of inspiration is another thing all together...

[NRaleighLiberal]

13. Good questions - I am trying to get my head around what the threats are for the people in the danger

zone.

[hedgehog]

14. But - you can also inhale or swallow alpha particles - not good.

[k2qb3]

15. no, you can't inhale or brush off alpha or beta particles...

Radiation is point source, it emits particles, you get away from the point source and less particles hit you and you get a lower dose. You hold an emitter in your hand and then throw it away from you far enough and you are no longer getting irradiated.

What they're talking about is contamination, bits of nuclear material that are emitting radiation, fallout essentially, that you can get on you or breath in.

[hedgehog]

19. I stand corrected, I should have said particles emitting alpha particles.

[Igel]

20. Four things to worry about.

Alpha particles.
They're big and clunky. They're helium nuclei. You don't brush them off. Almost anything stops them unless they're moving very quickly. A lead bunker will stop them. Aluminum foil or even plastic wrap will. Most don't move quickly.

Beta particles.
High-speed electrons. They can mess up individual molecules but are also easily stopped. At worst they kill cells. They *can* build up, in the right conditions, but all that yields is a static shock. They're electrons. They can be nasty because they can produce synchrotron (Bestrahlung) radiation, i.e., gamma rays, as they slow down.

Gamma rays
Nasty, able to penetrate deeply into body tissue and mess up compounds. For example, DNA. They can come from having beta particles slow down as they interact with other atoms; or they can result directly from nuclear decay.

Neutrons
You need a more specialized source than plutonium. Not a concern here, IIRC. But they're big, heavy, and dangerous if they're moving quickly (as they pretty much have to do to keep from decaying before they do anything). They have the added "benefit" of being able to make other atoms radioactive. Joy.


The intensity of radiation is inversely proportional to the cube of the distance from the radiation source. In other words, if you're 1 meter from a radiation source and get 1 unit of radiation exposure, moving to 2 meters will get you 1/8 unit of radiation. Think about that when somebody says how high the radiation dose is somewhere where people aren't and then tries to extrapolate that to the place a mile away where people are. 500 millirem 1 meter from the source? Then a kilometer from the source it's 500/(1000 x 1000 x 1000) millirem.

The problem is that the "radiation source" is frequently a cloud of radioactive dust mixed in with dirt. Brushing it off and leaving it outside is the best way of dealing with it; the walls stop the alpha and beta particles and provide distance for that inverse-cubed law to do its business. It's really important not to inhale or ingest any radioactive dust. You can't brush it off, and it tends to lodge right up against cells. Then any radiation can be dangerous, even alpha particles. The "burns" aren't from heat; they're basically lesions caused by having skin and tissue die where the radiation source is lodged.

Most people assume that "radioactive" is a simple term. You have to look not only at radiation type but also at half-life. Something with a short half life is much more radioactive than something with a long half-life. Half life of 4.5 billion years? It makes a good doorstop. Half life of 3 days? I don't want it near me. However, it means that the really nasty stuff decays and is gone fairly quickly unless there's a lot of it.

[Ignis]

16. Kick. Surreal isn't even the word.

:(

[eleny]

17. Another live feed in English for the network is here...

http://www.livestation.com/channels/123-nhk-world-english

And yes, it's surreal.

[Takket]

18. people really need to strip at the door

brushing it is only going to kick up whatever is on your clothes

should immediately hose off in the yard or shower, but i doubt they have water