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Well, at least one of the 2 possibilities is closer to the worst case since radioactivity levels are 500x (400 mill-sievert, from 800 u-sievert) what they were a few hours ago.

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Where are you getting the milli from? Kyodo reports 8000 micro sievert. So it's an ~5.5x increase from the previous high-water-mark of 1,500 microsievert.

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/78063.html

Japanese chief secretary's press conference which I was watching on NHK. NHK repeated the number several times. Found a press report here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-14/japan-appeals-for-i...

Thanks! I am not sure what reports to believe anymore...

asahi.com also reported a similar number (400 mili sievert near reactor number 4, believed to follow fire at that location): http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0315/TKY201103150154.ht...

Stop it! This is the proper time to panic and disregard any empirical evidence. The Sky-Is-Falling crowd has needed this release of pure panicgasm for a long time, don't ruin it for them.

Well, just cross your fingers and pray, it may get worse, if you are lucky. I get the distinct feeling that you want there to be a nuclear catastrophe....most detractors are content with imagining (and genuinely believing) that there have been several catastrophes in our past. But you seem drawn to want an actual catastrophe.

Am I wrong? If you could somehow magically snap your fingers and make nuclear power 100% safe, would you do it?

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