Fukushima Responders Starting To Get Sick

[Katashi_itto]

[AtheistCrusader]

1. One error.

Those photos at the end have nothing to do with 'radioactive snow', that's scrub-down. They are decontaminating the flight deck. In fact, just enter 'Flight Deck Decontamination' into bing or google, and you'll see those photos, plus more that clearly show it is foam.

The contamination was real, but you can't see it with the naked eye.

[newfie11]

2. That ship had radiation monitoring abilities

And yet they did nothing to protect our service men and women.
Inexcusable they used contaminated water, someone on that ship had to have known.
Typical US government. Troops are expendable ( remember the pictures of troops outside looking at a mushroom cloud during testing).
Think the government really thought they were safe or were they part of the experiment.

As far as what happened on this ship someone knew the radiation amount and that someone needs to be prosecuted.

[jtuck004]

3. "Inexcusable they used contaminated water," Sort of. They have to use the seawater. They need far

more water than can be brought to the ship, so it must come from the ocean and be treated for use. Without that you have to just tie it to a dock.

And while there are some radiation monitoring capabilities on board, in my experience in the Navy there is nothing that scans that water supply. It comes in through big metal screens and into the treatment equipment, and the output is tested for relatively typical things.

I think it took them a bit to realize that Tepco and Japan were (And still are) just pumping contaminated water into the ocean (now there are reports of it having reached Tokyo in the underground water supply - 40 million people might be at real risk right now if they keep up this little charade), and when they did figure it out, (too slowly, I think, because there are trained people on there - but not at the level where they could command the vessel) they got out of there.

But it was too late, obviously.

Frankly, I think the public today is being far too lenient on what is known and unknown about this, both in Japan and here. It's like everyone is numb to the potential hazards that are encircling us. If it doesn't come in the form of a big flying saucer shooting blue beams down to destroy buildings and people, it just doesn't get the attention it so richly deserves. And I think we are gonna pay a price for that...

[newfie11]

4. If their ionization monitors are picking up massive radiation

It would be logical that it is also contaminating the water.
Why not go far out to sea away from the drift?
Someone on that ship must have training in radiation monitoring.

I agree that this whole thing is being ignored for the most part here in America.
Little things like no sardines, melting starfish, polar bears with hairless open sores are mentioned but for the most part not in association with the melt down in Japan.
Then again all the downwinders are used to government denial.

[jtuck004]

5. We are the downwinders. If we don't get unused to it, the wrong people are gonna die.n/t

[newfie11]

6. True that. Nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. As angry as I am abut Fukishima, I do have to consider

the reason for government silence.

Let's do a DU group mind experiement.

Let's say Japan announces that Tokyo and envvirons are contaminated, it is not safe to drink tap water,
nor, by extension, to use that water for growing stuff.
What is the next thing that happens?

Let's say our Govrnment is an intelligent wise body,which honors the social contract with its citizens.
( I know, I know)
and announces that the reported cesium hotspots in Seattle did happen, people along the Ore,Wash, coast did breathe in radiation, and the West Coast is contaminated to varying degrees/places.
What is the next thing that happens?

[AtheistCrusader]

12. Being a west coast denizen, I would take my family in to have thyroids screened.

Otherwise, not much.

Japan would be probably in full riot mode though.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. In fact, the West Coast economy would be hit very very hard.

Who wants to eat fish/shell fish, lettuce, any produce, any dairy, that might be contaminated?
doesn't matter if in fact the food IS contaminated, what matters is people's perception.
tons and tons of food comes from the West Coast.

fer instance, after BP poisoned the Gulf down here, most people are not eating local shrimp or fish from the Gulf.
the fishermen,particularly from Louisiana, are severely impacted.
And of course getting no help from the settlement fund.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. The melting starfish is likely due to rising CO2.

They depend on calcium carbonate saturation in the ocean water. CO2 in the water lowers the carrying capacity of the water for calcium carbonate.

There's no way direct radiation exposure is causing such widespread death in that species, in that manner, without even amateurs being able to detect it, regardless of what our government is willing to tell us.

No, we're going to pay for injuries to the food chain like those starfish in very different ways... In fact, CO2/Acidification is probably the larger threat here, since the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is worldwide, whereas, Fukushima is largely only a threat to the Pacific.


Edit: Tiny bit of irony in the video preview pic, being a fossil fuel refinery fire, rather than a reactor.

[Sirveri]

16. I'd like to know what boat those pictures were taken on for starters.

The material they're using is clearly AFFF (Aqueous Film forming foam). If the carrier in question was a short deck LPD, LHA or similar variant, then they likely wouldn't have significant radiation monitoring equipment on board. If it was a nuclear powered long deck carrier however, then they have hundreds of nuclear trained enlisted men and women (in addition to the engineering officers), airborne particulate monitors, the engineering staff also wears TLD's, and their engineering lab techs likely have an internal body scanner (we called it hugging the pig, I was subs and we didn't have space for them, Carriers have the space and likely had at least one). They would also have a cache of potassium iodine pills to release (and should have done so if they were responding to a nuclear accident). If the skittles are suing the Navy over this and it is nuclear, then we should see a lot of the documentation come out in court. ELT's are required to keep extensive records for NAVSEA and Naval Reactors, failure to do so is a court martial offense and they don't have mercy when it comes to records like those. So if they don't show up then the higher ups likely destroyed them and are intending on settling out any civil suits.

[KansDem]

9. "Troops are expendable"

"remember the pictures of troops outside looking at a mushroom cloud during testing"

Explosion at 2'59"

[Voice for Peace]

10. I wonder how long those soldiers lived afterwards?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plumbbob

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downwinders

[newfie11]

13. Yes I do

Wouldn't ya think after Nagasaki and Hiroshima we would have had a clue.

[LongTomH]

15. The US government tends to downplay the effects of radiation, including on atom bomb survivors....

.....and downwinders, people downwind of nuclear testing. A college friend who was ex-army, told me with a straight face: "A thin board will protect you from an atomic bomb, even close-u." That's what the army was telling him.

The Republicans and Libertarians are even worse. The idea of a "survivable, limited nuclear exchange" has been practically religious dogma with the rightwing for decades.

[marym625]

7. Thanks for posting

Personally, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg.