radiation from Japan - do you have KA

[CarmelHP]

We've had this discussion before. KI protects against a very specific radiation effect. It blocks the thyroid so you don't get thyroid cancer down the road. It's not going to protect you in any other way from radiation exposure. It's not a panacea. The only thing that will protect you is shielding from the radiation source. 450 REMs is an LD50 and 800 REMs is LD100, KI will not protect from that.

 

[2ADMNLOVER]

Anyone else picking up on the irony of this situation?

60 some odd years ago we nuke them , now Karma steps in to return the favor and blow radioactive winds across our country .

 

[Bendrx]

Anyone else picking up on the irony of this situation?

60 some odd years ago we nuke them , now Karma steps in to return the favor and blow radioactive winds across our country .

Well they still got nuked 5 times, 2 by us and looks like up to 3 more by themselves. Good think we've got the Pacific, and the Rockies. We as nuked now as we were in WWII. Wouldn't call that karma, more of a disposition to getting irradiated. If anything that's an attaboy from Karma to us.

 

[shibumiseeker]

. if radioactive iodine gets into the thyroid it stays there and is not processed from the body, so your body is massively exposed and dies.

Not quite. The bigger danger is longer term. The I-131 in the thyroid doesn't give off massive amounts of radiation, and I-131 is a beta emitter, so the radiation does not affect much beyond the thyroid. The most common effect is thyroid cancer years later, and the incident rate is fairly high (half at 20 years is the number that sticks in my head, but I don't have a source for that).

 

[insidethebunker]

Someone asked about shelf life. 7 to 8 years depending on the manufacturer.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I just read that on that 1st reactor they have already flooded it with sea water, that kills the reactor core, will never user that reactor again. That is what they are trying to do is balance the possability of a meltdown vs. the ability to regain control of the reactor and be able to fix and reuse the reactor. If they actually gave a **** about just the safety of the people they would flood all of the cores, but you know money is more important than lives, just like in the US.

So you feel that they should just go ahead and flood them all just in case right?

I disagree. Electricity will be a very critical component of recovery in Japan. To flood them all just in case is completely asinine and ignorant IMHO. Rather, I would choose to very closely monitor them, and only flood the ones that need it, just like they have been doing.

For anybody that is really concerned about this, you need to read this site MIT NSE Nuclear Information Hub (http://web.mit.edu/nse/) | Information about the incident at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants in Japan hosted by http://web.mit.edu/nse/ :: Maintained by the students of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering a before making wild claims based upon what MSNBC etc said on the news. Their entire goal is to drum up fear and panic, their ratings rely on it.