Sky News

[Apache]

Just browsing round the local area, and found Duga (the old 'Woodpecker' over the horizon radar site). That's an amazing bit of engineering - but also abandoned now. I remember hearing that when I was a kid...

[Predictable Bob]

Apparently the Japanese authorities are encouraging the residents within 2km of the reactor to evacuate ...

Can't help thinking that 2kms will be bugger all use if it goes pear shaped !

[sbd16v]

apache you know quite a bit about reactors, pwr reactors as so much better although the worst thing about cynoble (spell) was the fact it all could have been avoided as the biggest problem with the reactor was actually the way it was operated.

this news will have all the people that aint got a clue telling us how we should not be building nuclear power stations in the uk

[sbd16v]

Apparently the Japanese authorities are encouraging the residents within 2km of the reactor to evacuate ...

Can't help thinking that 2kms will be bugger all use if it goes pear shaped !

radiation dose is dirrectly related to distance, as you double the distance you 1/4 the dose so moving 2kms away makes a massive difference to the amount of radiation you are exposed to.

and then by taking potasium iodate tablets you block the tyroid glan that stops you taking in alot of the airborn radiation.

[fingers21]

I'm good, I still have my NBC suit, respirator and bottles of fullers earth from my army days! I can't find the straw for my canteen, so can't drink, but that's a small hurdle.

[Predictable Bob]

radiation dose is dirrectly related to distance, as you double the distance you 1/4 the dose so moving 2kms away makes a massive difference to the amount of radiation you are exposed to.

and then by taking potasium iodate tablets you block the tyroid glan that stops you taking in alot of the airborn radiation.

Ignoring the fact that the reactor in question is as safe as milk ...

The inverse square law just means that those further away won't die quickly if you look at Chernobyl there's a 30km exclusion zone and people are STILL dying and that happened 25 years ago !

[John h]

That's it then Bob, dig out the noddy suits !

[Predictable Bob]

I couldn't get into my old noddy suit these days !

[sbd16v]

Ignoring the fact that the reactor in question is as safe as milk ...

The inverse square law just means that those further away won't die quickly if you look at Chernobyl there's a 30km exclusion zone and people are STILL dying and that happened 25 years ago !

yes because of air bourn injested radition, and thats something we can stop now with pits tablets.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Ignoring the fact that the reactor in question is as safe as milk ...

The inverse square law just means that those further away won't die quickly if you look at Chernobyl there's a 30km exclusion zone and people are STILL dying and that happened 25 years ago !

From old age?

[sbd16v]

I couldn't get into my old noddy suit these days !

i work far to close for them to bother giving me one

[Predictable Bob]

From old age?

Unfortunately not Vince ...

The majority of the fallout from the Chernobyl accident fell in Belarus a poor country largely dependent on agriculture. Given the choice of eating food grown in contaminated soil or starving the population are consuming a significant amount of contaminated food. The result is a shortened life expectancy and a greater frequency of radiation related illnesses.

We learnt about this some years ago when we hosted a pair of 10 year old twins from Belarus - according to the statistics a month over here eating good food puts two years on their life expectancy ...

[Rustinho]

Unfortunately not Vince ...

The majority of the fallout from the Chernobyl accident fell in Belarus a poor country largely dependent on agriculture. Given the choice of eating food grown in contaminated soil or starving the population are consuming a significant amount of contaminated food. The result is a shortened life expectancy and a greater frequency of radiation related illnesses.

We learnt about this some years ago when we hosted a pair of 10 year old twins from Belarus - according to the statistics a month over here eating good food puts two years on their life expectancy ...

From a lecture given at the Dalton Nuclear Institute, Manchester University:

Chernobyl
• 1,000 on-site staff were heavily exposed on the first day. Among
the 200,000 emergency staff exposed during 1986/7 and about
2,000 deaths can be expected
• 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer, 9 deaths. Survival rate is 99%.
• A total of 4000 could die of radiation exposure
• By mid-2005 only 50 can be directly attributed – almost all were
rescue workers
• The report concluded poverty “lifestyle” diseases are rampant in
the FSU and mental health problems pose a much greater risk

Source: IAEA, WHO and United Nations Development Programme

Also, the average dose of "liquidation workers" (ie the people cleaning up the site and in very close contact with contaminated material) is about 100 mSv. According to WHO this increases their risk of early death by cancer by 0.5-1%. Compare to a lifetime smoker with a risk of 50%

Best estimates (once again, UN/WHO/IAEA) states a risk of up to 8000 future cancers may be due to the Chernobyl accident. Background cancer rate for the surrounding areas are just under half a million. Statistically significant but not by a huge amount.

The trouble is that fraudsters like Greenp1ss and the like have hoodwinked the media and the public into believing lies, masked by some very harrowing individual personal interest stories in the press.

The facts don't really fit but Joe Public has long forgotten about Chernobyl (the kids I was teaching about it last year weren't even born for over 10 years after it happened and it had limited interest for them, even though it would have affected the sheep farming communities of which they were a part of).

50 deaths, while very unfortunate, is hardly what people think what happened because of the mis-information they've been fed.

According to the 2006 WHO report on the Chernobyl disaster the single biggest health issue has been the mental health effects and this is certainly an interesting factor that could probably do with more investigation...

Oh - the official figure for average shortening of life expectancy for those affected? Works out at 8 months.

[Predictable Bob]

Hmmm - I've got little time for extremists like Greenp1ss etc (Love the name!) but I'm equally sceptical about claims emanating from an undoubtedly fine research organisation funded by BNFL ...

My guess is that the truth lies somewhere in between the extremes

[Rustinho]

Hmmm - I've got little time for extremists like Greenp1ss etc (Love the name!) but I'm equally sceptical about claims emanating from an undoubtedly fine research organisation funded by BNFL ...

My guess is that the truth lies somewhere in between the extremes

The thing is, environmental lobbying organisations create headlines with emotional human interest based stories or "direct action" activities, etc.

The likes of the WHO/UN/IAEA, whilst having their own political affiliations (particularly when it comes to environmental issues), at least manage to produce peer-reviewed reports where you can look directly at the evidence referenced.

In this case I know who I firmly believe having read around the subject a wee bit.