Fukushima Emergency

> In addition to the needed nuclear materials for the reactor itself, there were/are at least 89 tons of used rods, "hot" enough that they need to be constantly cooled, stored on the Reactor 3 site.

There's no need to put "hot" in quotes, it's not a synonym for anything, it means the spent fuel is literally hot as in temperature.

It is true that the reason they are hot is because of ongoing heat generation from the fission fragment/decay products in the spent fuel. But that is an issue at literally every other uranium-fueled PWR or BWR reactor. They all need to be cooled until the decay heat finally dissipates.

Failing to cool the fuel rods would not turn them any more radioactive than they already are. Rather, the loss of physical fuel integrity once the fuel melts would release the existing radioactivity into the spent fuel pool (which essentially means the nearby air, since the fuel pool would not have water in it by definition in this scenario).

Luckily it's the easiest thing in the world to avert this; just keep water on the fuel rods, and there is no problem. You can even avoid circulating the water if you wish, the boiling water will remove heat just fine (but in this case you must still pour more water in to maintain the level).

The loss of full containment is certainly unfortunate, but it's nothing more than that. It's certainly better than having the entire reactor core assemblies dumped out straight into the ocean, but even that would not be the disaster implied by many if you run the numbers.

> the fact is that the reactor(s) are not contained

But the gist of the bullshit is that Fukushima poses a threat to Americans.

Contained or not, Fukushima never has and never will pose a threat to any Americans on the US mainland, or any other country for that matter.

> [...] Meteor strike? Super volcanic eruption?

Once your scenario reaches that kind of scale, I think the effect of Fukushima itself is going to be fairly negligible... :)

> Having it totally destroyed, or pushed under the sea, although perhaps creating an bad initial spike, probably wouldn't release as much radiation long-term.

The reactor has generated as much radioactive contamination as it's going to make (note that contamination is not the same as radiation).

So in that regard the worst numerical damage Fukushima could realistically do is to eject all of the contaimination into the sea. But even assuming that it would be of negligible impact to radiation levels ocean wide (at least, assuming adequate dispersal).

Given that it's easier to assure adequate dispersal for a continuous low-level transfer to the sea than it is to assure dispersal for effectively dropping the cores into the ocean, I think that dropping the cores into the ocean at once would actually be the worst possible thing.

Of course there are real concerns with groundwater contamination too, which might make people think that getting the damaged cores as far away as possible into the ocean is preferable. But even that possibility is more of an annoyance than a health hazard, since if the potable water going is radioactive it's easy to detect and avoid drinking it, unlike other chemical and biological drinking water hazards.

"Alpha particles in sunlight"? Come on. This kind of nonsense just gives ammunition to the crazies.

> Would the government tell us the truth if we were actually at risk or would they lie to avoid the mass panic that would undoubtedly ensue?

Another good question is, supposing that a mass panic would be elicited if there were honestly a wave of harmful contamination approaching, which answer should the government give?

One might reasonably assume that the government should give the answer which causes the least public disorder (and subsequent harm to the public).

But this doesn't mean you shouldn't trust the government per se, this means you should educate yourself so that you have some basic understanding of the likelihood of things like Fukushima affecting the West Coast. It does no good to say that you can't abdicate your rationality and trust to the government exclusively, if you then simply abdicate those to whoever is screeching the loudest.

I think it's a sign of how bad most people are at critical thinking, how willing they are to be led around by bad information wrapped up in an attractive way, and how technology has made it much easier for all involved to spread their opinions far and wide.

I seriously doubt that there's any more mistrust than there ever has been. But now, instead of churning out a few flyers about UFOs and distributing them to those who will take them, the nutcases can instead put up a web site and get a million readers.

Even that seems a bit questionable...

Living near Tokyo, after 3/11 I rather compulsively monitored the various web-available radiation counters, and many of them also stored historical data. The readings were almost universally so close to normal background radiation levels that it was questionable whether there was any difference at all. There was, as I recall, one notable spike at some point, but it was only notable because it was above background level; it was way too small to have any health impact.

[Radiation levels were a little higher in places like Chiba that are closer to Fukushima, but still quite firmly in the "no possible effect" region.]

Conspiracy theorists think Snopes is either part of the conspiracy[1] or isn't a reliable source of information (as compared to anonymous, breathlessly apocalyptic Wordpress blogs, of course.)

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7014214

Contaminated water is expected to reach the US west coast this year; it's just not dangerous. (So I agree the pill solicitation is likely incidental.) Here's a good writeup of the whole thing:

http://deepseanews.com/2013/11/true-facts-about-ocean-radiat...

Any KI pills that would be delivered are about 2-3 years too late to help with the Fukushima disaster anyways. The radioiodine released by Fukushima during the event has a relatively short half-life (which means it's no longer a thyroid risk now) and is no longer being produced since the reactors are shutdown (which means the Fukushima won't be a thyroid risk in the future, at least due to iodine).

If you run the numbers, it is at the same level as some 9/11 theories.

I can sort of respect not taking a position if you haven't researched it... but on the other hand, why even mention it if you haven't researched it enough to take a position? The claim smells like Grade A Bullshit, and while that's not necessarily enough to dismiss it outright, it does mean that you should check into it before spreading it around.

Some brief research indicates that there is a national stockpile of potassium iodide maintained for emergency response to domestic nuclear disasters. The tablets in this stockpile don't last forever, and have to be replenished. This is probably just a stockpile replenishment.

More info here:

http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/emerg-preparedness/about-emerg-...

The worst part is that most people don't want nor care to dig into the details, and accept whatever the calmly dispassionate talking head says at face value. I don't mean tinfoil hat but that which is being reported, especially in regional conflicts and political issues masks the multiple conflicting truths of the interests involved that seek to influence reporting to show their side as most legitimate. This is the type of power play people need to dig into most to get to any sort of "fair and balanced" appreciation for the complexities of situations behind the camera and when the camera leaves. Without an ability to see through the bullshit, the viewer remains a fool.

It goes both ways, current information is full of noise and reach for people who have neither time or knowledge to filter/integrate what come to them. History is sometimes made by dedicated people who try to deduce quite mathematically from very small pieces of different kind of information that cross check each other (when possible). In either cases, patience is needed.

Well a good start would be to figure out why are they dying? Or better yet, which starfish are dying? Where are they at? What is the death rate? What other factors have changed in the habitat? Etc. etc.

Are you implying that to be related to Fukushima in some way?

Your arguments of TEPCO links to the Japanese Mob is irrelevant, as the Snopes article discusses on whether or not the radiation levels are effecting the US.

Also, the link you gave on the US raising safe level markings is not a respected news source, and the article only links to other articles from the site as "sources". If's fine to call BS on an article on HN, but make sure you give proper backing to your claims, the post you just wrote doesn't.