Fukushima, a year later

[themadscientist]

A reporter takes us into the radioactive exclusion zone.

http://rockcenter.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2 ... en-in-time

[S133P3R]

But the exclusion zone didn’t look like that at all. Instead, it was a suburbs-fringed town surrounded by cattle farms. There were neat three- and four-bedroom houses on half-acre plots. There were tricycles and big-wheels on the driveways. There were swing sets in the yards. The only thing missing was people. If space travelers arrived after an extinction-level event, this is what they might find. A traffic light on the main street blinking red cautioned drivers who weren’t there to slow down.

This is so sad. It's exactly how chernobyl (*sp) was and it's a pitty the tragedy was repeated. I work just about 3 miles from San Onofre Nuclear plant, it's a coastal plant as well... Being California, seismic activity is always on your mind. I would hate to see a portion of the better half of California layed to waste from such a terrible series of disasters.
There was a great photo feature on the Boston Globe site recently with tsunami photos, taken during the peak of it or immediately after then it shows the same shot but 1 year later. It's amazing the way the people of Japan have rebounded from peril.



Thanks for the link.

[IanS]

Great link TMS.

Wish there were more pictures. They tell the real story.

It reminds me of Kiddofspeed. It will be interesting to see if the area around Fukushima looks the way Chernobyl looks so many years later.

For those of you who have not read the Kiddofspeed story, check it out. http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/

Tons of pictures awesome story. Its a really long read, but totally worth it. It really brings to light the destruction that is caused by a Chernobyl level nuclear disaster.

[raremotive]

^ I was thinking the same thing.

Thanks for the link Mike.

[Jesda]

Boy, that's depressing. Imagine if your town became uninhabitable.


I wonder how many people got sick?

[S133P3R]

Here's the article I referenced for those of you who care and can't search.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2012/0 ... efore.html
The Japanese culture and spirit to survive enthralls me.

[nissangirl74]

Boy, that's depressing. Imagine if your town became uninhabitable.


I wonder how many people got sick?

That will be hard to determine. Many people who are exposed to (less than radical amounts of) radiation don't get sick right away. Some don't exhibit symptoms for a long time. I remember last year there was an interview with a woman who survived the Hiroshima bomb. She said for years, she didn't exhibit many symptoms but later on, she found out that she had thyroid problems (very common with women who have been exposed to high levels of radiation). Her daughter has the same condition and she fears her granddaughter will as well. We might never know the answer to that.

[NolimitZ32]

It will stay deserted for decades, the guy in the video is right, they should use the site to contain all of the contaminated material and seal it off. Pripyat was a restricted site until 2008 IIRC and the radiation levels there are still too high for a human to be able to spend more than a few hours within the restricted zone. As for radiation poisoning, sadly it will likely affect a great majority of those who were exposed and their offspring as well. There are a lucky few that may never be affected. My dad used to work for the Russian Nuclear Energy Agency before we moved to the States, he was sent to Chernobyl 3 days after the explosion to assist and supervise, he had many coworkers that died within months of coming back yet he has never developed any symptoms at all. I feel very lucky that he was one of the few but so many died and so many more were affected by it across not just Ukraine but as far as western Europe that its almost a given that the death toll and genetic mutation will run rampant over the next few generations of those exposed to the Fukushima fallout.

[300ZXttZMAN]

Wow everyone needs to watch the videos after you read the article.

[nissangirl74]

http://news.yahoo.com/japan-marks-1-sin ... 10743.html

Found this tonight. 325,000 people are still in temporary housing. The governement can't stop arguing and finger-pointing long enough to initiate the rebuilding process. Such a sad fate for these people.

[4cefed]

I would like to point out that Chernobyl was orders of magnitude worse than this. No one in Japan has been killed or seriously injured as a result of exposure to radiation. The case could also be made that since the Japanese government acknowledged the accident and evacuated residents, incidence of genetic and somatic effects as well as cases of cancer will be very low. The Russians didn't do this, they ignored the problem and unknown thousands of people suffered or are suffering because of it.

It is tragic that so much area is unlivable right now, but there are methods of decontamination for rooms, buildings, towns, and cities. After the first few rain storms, all exterior contamination is washed into the ground or fixed to concrete, asphalt, etc. A family's home can be reclaimed. If the top few inches of soil or ground covering are removed, almost all of the contamination goes with it. Some of it will remain in the ground and vegetation will pull it back out and it has a chance to spread again. That's why using tobacco products are so harmful, the tobacco plant has an affinity for the uranium found naturally in the earth's crust. I would be willing to bet that Japan will start reclaiming a lot of the affected areas back.

One thing that is so frustrating is that I still haven't heard any actual MEASURE of radiation or contamination levels for anywhere other than the power plant site. We know that there is fallout in the surrounding areas, but this 1,000 times higher or 4362456235238765 times normal crap doesn't fly. If you had 10 grains of sand in your carpet one day and the next day, sand grain levels were "100.000 times normal" that still doesn't mean anything. Do I have to vacuum? Will I die from walking across the carpet? Seriously. Get. Some. Numbers.

If I were living there, my biggest problem would be getting access to contamination measuring instruments. Without these devices you have no idea what the conditions are around you. Those dosimeters that the media likes to wear around are pointless unless you are going near the plant. After deconning your house, a survey for lose contamination and some direct frisking can tell you quickly if you have returned the house to pre-accident condition or if you have areas to work on still.

I'm not trying to marginalize this accident, just add some perspective. Check out this list of industrial accidents and how many people have been actually killed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_in ... _disasters

There are towns in Pennsylvania with coal fires burning under them and are not habitable. Entire towns have been deserted due to toxic waste contamination. Other regions suffer high rates of cancer as a result of industry. This is the price we pay for trying to live a modern life. Honestly, I don't see us using nuclear power in 50 years, at least not in it's current form. Either solar or other forms of energy will be viable on a large scale or we will have changed plant design and fuel types so we won't have long-lived waste streams. Nuclear is one of the most environmentally friendly sources of mass-produced electricity we have, but it's obviously not perfect.

My thoughts lie with those that have to live with this accident every day.