Comments on: There is now little doubt that Fukushima Reactor 3 experienced post-tsunami fission but it is leaking

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:56:53 +0000

Rodger, as TH implies, the issue here is that this radioisotope is short lived, and is generated through fission, so if it is spiking than there is fission going on somewhere.

Not the end of the world, maybe not even a big deal. But it would indicate that some nuclear material has gotten where it should not be and that can complicate things. Or, maybe it will be a big deal. If someone tells you that it is NOT a big deal for sure, or that it IS a big deal for sure, that is their politics talking. We simply don’t know.

By: TH

TH — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:30:09 +0000

Regarding the result of concentration measurement in the stagnant water on the basement floor of the turbine building of Unit 1 of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station High levels of Cl-38 (half-life 37 minutes). If this is correct, then seawater is getting exposed to neutrons somewhere nearby and recently, too.

By: RogerD

RogerD — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:23:23 +0000

I just want to thank you guys for your informed comments – seem to be a few unnecessary comments getting posted which are clouding the discussion a bit for those of us who prefer not to comment on things we know nothing about.

Just wondering about Ana’s question to daedalus2u about the appearance of Iodine131. I noticed in being bandied about elsewhere, as though it spelt the end of the world or something. Is it significant?

By: KingofthePaupers

KingofthePaupers — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:50:42 +0000

Jct: Right, the whole planet is going to be poisoned by it. Deadly Deceit is a great book detailing the death statistics after Chernobyl and other nuclear accidents which government acted upon by discontinuing the death statistics! Har har har. I’m doing a video on what I’m doing to protect myself.

By: Giliell

Giliell — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:46:28 +0000

@Graciana
May I pass you a tinfoil hat?
The kids and I had much fun makin it, but I don’t think I’ve got much use for it.

Now, back to sanity
I believe…
…nothing
Seriously
My knowledge about all those pretty isotopes is much too small to follow your discourse and basically, that discourse is based on the information we’re given by authorities that have done a bad job on that level since day 1.
I think if I had a bug for every time they said that cores had meldted down, hadn’t melted, partially melted, probably melted, probably not melted, rods had breached, not breached, definetly no damage, possibly some damage, probably no damage and so on, I’d be rich.

The only thing I think is very clear is that Tepco are money greedy assholes without a bit of conscience. Blaming the injuries of the workers on themselves is despictable. They claim that all their employees are free to leave, but this doesn’t apply to the employees of sub-contracted companies for whom those workers work.

By: Graciana

Graciana — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:47:00 +0000

The spent fuel rods in the Mark 1 reactors are stored at the top of the building under the roof- which was BLOWN off in the first few days. This thing has been an censored level 8 diaster since nearly DAY 1. Where is the world to help?

Black smoke billowing out is BAD NEWS. There is very little to burn inside at this point but the nuclear fuel itself. The northern hemisphere is being radiated. Agenda 21 at work, depopulation afoot.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 05:11:58 +0000

Alex, I’m starting to switch back to the fission since shutdown thinking. I don’t know how I’m going to fix the title of this post, though.

By: Alex Besogonov

Alex Besogonov — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:50:58 +0000

Greg Laden:

I’m not saying that there is significant amount of fission. I’m just saying that fission byproducts can be detected even with a shutdown reactor, though normally at minute quantities.

Whether this is the case here I just don’t know.

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:42:59 +0000

wath, it is extremely unlikely that your symptoms are due to radioactive contamination. Levels that would produce acute effects in minutes would probably be enough to cause serious harm over several days, i.e. wounds in the scalp that penetrate to the skull and that do not heal.

In any case, the brain is quite resistant to radiation, so if that is all that got exposed you are probably ok. 😉

By: daedalus2u

daedalus2u — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 04:17:17 +0000

I133 only shows up one day, March 19. That is the same sample that also shows Ru105 which is another very short half life (4.4 hr) species without a longer lived precursor. That may be a sign of some fissioning, but it is at the limits of detection. Ru105 and I133 give off a bunch of different energy betas and picking out the right energy ones might be tricky at the limits of detection.

I think the â??neutron beamâ? is a bad translation. Neutrons would travel line-of-sight until they scatter off of something and then they become isotropic. It doesn’t take very much hydrogen to scatter neutrons. In air, fission neutrons have a mean free path of about 100 meters. Moderated neutrons (thermal) have a much shorter path of about 20 meters. Any kind of neutron beam that traveled 1 km is not credible.