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Comment by patrickgzill | Hacker News Reader

Kyodo News reported that staff had vacated the control room due to high levels of radioactivity. If that is not "abandoning" then it is pretty close to it.

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/15/japan-quake-live-blog-f... (scroll down or search for "control" in the postings)

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The problem people seem to have is that "abandon" implies "everyone has left and no-one will ever come back", and that the plant will be left, unattended, to its fate. While various articles seem to actually be saying "people left temporarily, but will be coming back" and that efforts will continue to deal with the problem.

I'd argue that is splitting hairs. What will magically lower the radiation when the workers leave?

They can't drop boric acid and water on the half-melted reactors from helicopters for fear of rupturing them further, the control systems are no longer effective, and pumping in seawater hasn't worked too well so far.

<i>What will magically lower the radiation when the workers leave?</i>

Time.

Wind.

Right. Most of the radiologicals that have been released with the steam have very short half lives so the radiation levels drop rapidly (relatively speaking).

I would point out that the dangerous stuff that is there is iodine(-131 IIRC) with a half life of 8 days and since it can give you thyroid cancer it is not "safe" until it virtually is gone at 80 days; and cesium-137 with a half life of 30 years, a gram of which can kill you.

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