At least they seem to have stopped the leak of radioactive water. However, they will still need to dump some more into the ocean in the meantime to make room to store even more highly reactive water.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110405/wl_nm/us_japan

Which isn't anybody's position, as far as I can tell. As you said in your earlier quote:

Nobody's talking about the two bombs dropped on Japanese cities.



Your use of negatives is confusing me on what you're saying. Levels of plutonium contamination _can_ be distinguished among above ground testing, the releases from Chernobyl, and the releases from Fukushima. All have distinguishing characteristics. This is pointed out on pages 242, et seq., and pages 255, et seq.

I also recommend watching the video at
[url=ttp://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/][url=ttp://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/][url=ttp://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/]ttp://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/[/url][/url][/url]
where the lecturer talks about distinguishing features between the Fukushima releases and those from Chernobyl.

It is my understanding that it is, indeed, possible to distinguish among various isotopes to tell which came from atmospheric tests and which from burning nuclear reactors.

Perhaps a summary of the events at Fukushima is best summed up here;

http://vimeo.com/22062314

I find this very concerning as well;

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/04/07/japan.quake/index.html?hpt=T2

Looks like a criticality event (the bluish ball of light on the horizon) has been recorded at the beginning of the above video. I hope I am very wrong on this one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident#Blue_glow

As to Mr. Gundersen's video, I'm unimpressed with his credentials and with his comments. I'll defer to the presenters at UC Santa Barbara who appear to have no axe to grind. Mr. G definitely has concerns, but he states no basis for his concerns. People are concerned. C'est la vie.

As for any criticality accident, I'm happy to say that time will prove whether it happened or not.

No details that I've seen, but I'm seeing the first reports from Japan's Kyodo news service that they are considering raising the classification of the nuclear crisis to the highest category. Wow, that is a serious admission.

They're also going to expand the evacuation zone and also start preventing people from going back and forth into the evacuation zone to their homes. They are finally sending recovery teams into the evacuation zone to search for bodies.

And, the same areas hit with 7.1, 6.0, and 5.6 aftershocks within 10 minutes. Some casualties. A triple whammy like that would certainly fray my nerves.

It's hard to know what to make of the nuclear crisis even a month later. I feel exactly the same way about the current economy, i.e. things seem calm and maybe even hopeful at times, but I feel a personal sense of dread that things could slide into even worse territory in short order. In both cases, the underlying problems and weaknesses have not been adequately addressed yet.

Fukushima now officially raised to a Level-7. Rumors floating around that some of this radiation is making it into US food sources (e.g. milk in Hawaii).

This is the time where I'd like to see a lot more radiation data getting published for the USA. Of course, a lot of people in America probably feel the same way - so let's see if we get any responses.

Pete #2

Its been a level 7 event since the first No1 reactor exploded. The operators Tepco who stated that the explosion was caused by a release of hydrogen, of course they never really went on to explain where all that hydrogen came from.

http://vimeo.com/22209827

The rest of the nuclear industry experts also failed to inform the public where the hydrogen came from.

Russian nuclear experts are strong believers in Japan government cover up: http://www.utro.ru/articles/2011/04/12/968525.shtml The article is in Russian, so - some excerpts translated and thoughts from me:

- The "low activity waste dumping to the ocean" is just a test ball, trying the world's tolerance. The high activity waste dumping will be following soon.

- The Chernobyl meltdown was over and out in 24 hours. The Fukushima is still burning. There are 10 times more of fuel to burn there compared to Chernobyl and 50 times more of the old radioactive waste. So, when it's over, the Chernobyl desolation zone might be considered a clean place in comparison to Fukushima's.

Many are arguing about the weak effect from the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima/Nagasaki here - have in mind that there were just 6 kilos of "fuel" burnt (at least 1 kilogram of which disintegrated completely), at Fukushima plant they have over 10,000,000 kilograms...

I've mentioned before that UC Berkeley is doing daily monitoring of air, rain, and some foods, and they're updating their site daily, too:

http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling

So far, levels detected in spinach show that you'd get the same levels of radiation as on a roundtrip flight coast to coast - _if_ you eat 800 pounds of spinach. As of yesterday, Berkeley is showing no increases in radiation levels in the US.

Fukushima has indeed been raised to level 7, but this is based on getting more accurate records from earlier in the month. At that time, the reactor was releasing 10,000 terabecquerels of Iodine-131. Level 7 is defined as being the release of "tens of thousands of terabecquerels." Although Chernobyl was classed as a level 7, also, Chernobyl released about 10 times as much radiation as Fukushima. They're both level 7 because that's the definition of level 7. It's like saying because the White Sox are a major league time, they're in the same league as the Yankees. :-> Technically true.

We all have access to information freely available on the Web to read these numbers and to know what they mean. Relying on TV news for knowledge and understanding of what's going on at Fukushima is, in my very humble opinion, a mistake.

In addition to UC Berkeley, we have access to MIT's page on Fukushima:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/explained-radioactivity-0328.html
which has links to their blog and other articles on Fukushima and radiation dangers in general;

Canada's Occupational Health and Safety:
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/ionizing.html
which has information on ionizing radiation in general and how it's measured;

Harvard's Medical School's page on understanding radiation in light of Fukushima:
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/radia...ve-201103161976
which compares releases there with more common experiences such as chest X-rays and mammograms;

and an excellent presentation from UC Santa Barbara's Department of Physics:
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/plecture/bmonreal11/
which talks about radiation in general and ties it specifically to Fukushima. The video and slides explain what happened at Fukushima and why this wasn't another Chernobyl, no matter what the level number.

Two of the keys to survival are preparation and knowledge. We have access to incredibly rich resources which we can use to learn about what's going on and then to know whether there is danger, knowledge based on our own new-gained expertise. People who panic are less likely to perform well under stress. I recommend that we learn about the danger, judge the extent of the danger, then decide what preparation we need to take.

So far, Japanese police report over 13,000 confirmed deaths and over 14,000 people still missing. This report:
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979215937
estimates the death toll will exceed 27,000, as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami. As far as I can tell, no deaths are related to Fukushima's releases of radiation. But we fear radiation. We can lessen our fear of radiation by learning.

One of the things I love about this thread is the rapid increase in my vocabulary. Is a terabecquerel any thing like a pterodactyl?

Seriously, thanks for the good links. I learned that a medical procedure I experienced late last year gave me a good fraction of the annual limit for nuclear plant personnel. We live in a complex world......