some possible damage

AP Photo from Daily Mail:

Smoke: Fresh safety concerns arose today as black smoke was spotted emerging from Unit 3 of the plant, prompting a temporary evacuation of all workers from the complex.

"Five are believed to have already died and 15 are injured while others have said they know the radiation will kill them. The original 50 brave souls were later joined by 150 colleagues and rotated in teams to limit their exposure to the radiation spewing from over-heating spent fuel rods after a series of explosions at the site. They were today joined by scores more workers." Daily Mail, 3/24/11

Reuters graphic from Dail Mail story, click to enlarge.

Elaine Supkis at Gramercy Images News points out that Reactor 3, pictured above, did not have a fire. The building MELTED over a period of days due to the radioactive fuel.

The problem with handling radiation is its invisibility. You really can’t tell you are being killed until it is years too late! You can't run from it easily, hide from it unless you wear lead suits and you can’t smell it, either....Experts warned us that the #3 reactor was the most dangerous. The black smoking ruin here is what little is left of this reactor. This is the MOV one which was being refitted with plutonium. Wow. Isn’t this hideous? It looks like…Chernobyl! And it is. Totally Chernobyl. Each day, each reactor looks more and more ruined, more and more desolate. They look like a fast forward film of slow organic destruction over centuries only this is over days. With water being pumped in as fast as possible, they continue to devolve and collapse, the plutonium one, rather thoroughly and fastest of all. Just three days ago, it had this stream of steam coming out of just one small hole. Now, it is twisted wreckage. This was no ‘explosion’ but rather, the natural evolution of plutonium as it has a meltdown. ...

Not exploding but simply pouring out that invisible force that acts so energetically on our genes. Here is a story I can’t vouch for but it does show the uncertainty factor of trying to quantify what is going on when we have a full blown nuclear fire/meltdown/catastrophe: Fukushima Now 72,000 Times Hiroshima Radiation

Dr. Chris Busby verified today in an email that three spent fuel pools are totally blasted away and burned up. That puts the approximate radiation levels at 24,000 HIROSHIMAS x 3 = 72,000 times the radiation of Hiroshima now in the atmosphere..

Things are most definitely not under control. It's a meltdown, it's been a meltdown, and the radiation is going all over the place.

Into the ocean, into the air, into the food supply, into human beings, into animals, and across the planet.

Look at the picture of reactor three published two days ago. It's a smouldering, melting heap of metal. Does that look like something that can be rewired or repiped to you?

Radioactivity levels spike in seawater at nuclear plant, 3/27/11

He initially said the high radiation reading inside reactor No. 3, where the workers were injured, could indicate damage to the reactor. He later said it could be from venting operations to release pressure or water leakage from pipes or valves. “There is no data suggesting a crack,” Nishiyama said. “Reactor No. 3 is the only one of the six that uses a fuel mixture of plutonium and uranium. Plutonium is the most deadly radioactive isotope.”

OK maybe we are missing something here. There could be some indications of damage. Let's have a look at that picture again, Reactor THREE -- it's the MELTED one:

Yes, we think there could be some damage there to the pipes or valves, maybe even a crack or two.

"Japan’s government said the nuclear crisis at a quake-damaged power plant isn’t getting worse as radiation levels rise in sea water used to cool over-heating fuel rods....The nuclear agency said it doesn’t believe there is a physical crack in the pressure or containment vessels, which surround the core of the No. 3 reactor. Leakage may be coming from pipes connected to the reactor." Radiation levels rise at Fukushima as government says situation is stable, 3/26/11

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Brief tutorial on radioactive particles:




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Japanese treated for radiation in China: Two Japanese travellers have been hospitalised in China with "severe" radiation levels after they arrived on a commercial airliner from Tokyo, China's safety watchdog said. 3/25/11

They may have ingested a particle or two...?

Also...

Tiny radioactive particles from Japan found in Iceland, 3/23/11

"The pollution was carried across North-America and across the Atlantic Ocean. The particles are tiny and not considered to be dangerous to people’s health, Fréttabladid reports." 

The particles are tiny?!? NO SHIT. Actually, they're invisible radioactive ATOMIC particles. Did you not see them floating across North America on the way to Iceland?

balloon fiesta

Don't worry. They're tiny. The dangerous radioactive particles you would definitely notice.

'No risk' as Fukushima fallout hits Europe, 3/25/11

MINUSCULE particles of fallout from the crippled nuclear power plant in Japan have reached Iceland and are expected in France and elsewhere in Europe.

Tiny, miniscule, whatever. Not to worry.You will easily be able to avoid the dangerous particles.

Traces of Japanese radiation detected in Newfoundland, 3/23/11

More US states find traces of radiation from Japan: Colorado, Oregon, Washington, California, Hawaii. Since the miniscule, tiny radioactive particles DISPERSE IN THE AIR, they are not considered a danger after they travel far away, because the less dangerous ones will decay, and the really bad ones that hang around for hundreds or thousands of years will be far away from the source. Thus if you do, regrettably, inhale or eat an invisible radioactive particle and die, no one will ever know why. Win win, also known as getting away with murder. How do you think the authorities have maintained that Chernobyl killed "only" 4,000 people, when the data indicates a true number closer to one million?


Therefore, we don't see how spreading them all over the place really helps. If the nuclear CONTAINMENT building explodes, or melts, how is it a good thing for the radioactive particles to DISPERSE? Contain and disperse are antonyms. They can't both be good. But apparently, now that the plant has melted down, the dispersing radiation is a GOOD THING, kind of like how instead of cleaning up and containing all that oil in the Gulf, the authorities dumped millions of gallons of toxic Corexit to DISPERSE the oil into tiny submerged droplets forming enormous life-sucking oxygen-depleted impossible-to-clean-up kill zones in the ocean.

Because for -paths, if you can't SEE THE PROBLEM, it simply doesn't exist.

Plus, the miniscule particles wash out in the rain, and it rained and rained and rained on the West Coast in the past week or so, conveniently washing all those pesky radiation particles down to earth.

3/20 (4:15pm): Rain water results show trace levels of radioactive iodine (I131,I132), cesium (Cs134, Cs137), and tellurium (Te132). The amounts show that the activity we are observing originated from any of the three operating reactors that was shut down since I-131 and Te132 half-lives are less than 10 days and the spent fuel from unit 4 had not operated for > 130 days. The calculated exposure to the public is so low that the consuming of ~500 liters of this water would only increase dose by the same amount received by taking a cross-country airplane flight.

Etc.

More specifically, we measure gamma rays and their energies in our detector, which provides a unique fingerprint of a specific radioisotope.

Well that's great that the UC Berkeley Department of Engineering measures the gamma rays. But according to the tutorial video above, you still would want to avoid the actual invisible radioactive atomic particles themselves. Those can be very dangerous when ingested.

"There is a cause for concern. As we have already said, it is more than likely (in fact quite certain) that Plutonium and Uranium are part of the fallout mix. If the gamma signal goes above background you have to assume there are particles floating about that you definitely do not want inside your body. The problem with alpha-emitting particles is that although the range of their radioactive decays is very short, they are immensely destructive, killing cells and potentially mutating the DNA of cells which survive. The standard ICRP model of radiation risk takes an average of the energy of those decays as if it were distributed across large volumes of tissue and concludes that the risk is low. This is as stupid as believing that because it's safe to warm yourself by the fire it's equally safe to absorb the same amount of heat by eating a red-hot ball bearing." Alpha Emitters, Geiger Counters

Also, by the way, *some* of the EPA monitors measuring are not working properly.

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) -- The EPA has reported that at least eight of 18 air monitors along the West Coast are "undergoing quality review."

According to a statement on their website, the monitors in California, Oregon and Washington were set up after nuclear fears spread across Japan and are listed by the EPA as being in review for reporting an abnormal reading.

Scientists must now evaluate the readings, which indicate that the monitor may not be working properly or merely measured a spike in radiation levels due to environmental change.

...Last week many people were fooled by an official-looking email that was sent out, claiming radioactive particles could mix in with the recent rainfall.

The hoax email appeared to be sent from the L.A. County Fire Department, and said the acid-like rain could cause burns or even cancer.

Firefighters say the email is completely fake.

Sure.