I live in the UK, we still have to test sheep in Wales with a geiger counter before we can sell them as a direct consequence of the Chernobyl incident. Thats after 25 years and 1818.132 miles (2926 km).

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/dec/29/sheep-farmers-chernobyl-meat-restricted

Oh, wait, it was an earthquake and a tsunami that killed ten thousand people. And I don’t know how many people were killed when that oil refinery at Ichihara blew up, or how many people downwind of it will develop lung trouble in the future. Whereas nobody at all has died from the explosions at Fukushima, and the radiation (particulate or otherwise) released seems to be about equivalent to what you get from a handful of long-distance airliner flights. It looks like it won’t even raise a blip in long-term cancer rates.

So let’s not burn the nuclear technicians who are risking their lives in very difficult circumstances to keep things safe for an ungrateful public who won’t give up their demands for energy, while demanding that that energy be perfectly safe. And they aren’t even in your country anyway.

Japan has no oil industries to suppress research into alternative energy. If they haven’t deployed it, then it’s because it doesn’t work yet. Whereas nuclear power does, and it kills far fewer people than oil, coal, or alternative power. (You think those wind-turbine blades are completely safe?)

And it was at this late point in the post when I realized Nelson C was just being a rude troll, for unclear reasons, and without his tongue anywhere near his cheek.

So, EXACTLY WHAT material did they wash off? What else besides water and solid core materials are inside the containment?

If someone is washing off radioactive solids, what else could they be other than smoke from vaporizing fuel rods?

The hydrogen was created by the fuel rods being clear of the water in the reactors.

Oh and

#
1125: Worrying news, this: The operators of the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant say it’s possible that cooling water at one of the reactors has evaporated, Reuters reports. The company says it can’t rule out the possibility that the nuclear fuel rods in Number 2 reactor were now exposed and could be at risk of meltdown.

BBC live

time stamp 20:38 Japan time

Reactor NO2 pump ran out of fuel, but they’ve managed to restart the pump to get water back into the reactor core

21:08 pm Japan time

21:14

the core now has water to a depth of 2m

21:52pm Japan time

gather they core vessel had to be vented, to reduce the pressure allowing them to pump sea water into the core, and reading between the lines, the steam is mildly radioactive.

If you are anywhere near one of these reactors, my advice is to get the hell out of there for a while. Button up the house, take the most important items, and take an extended trip to another part of the country. If your job is at all mobile, time to start making some arrangements. I wouldn’t trust these information-purveyors, because they’ll only announce major radiation leakage too late after the fact, when you could have prepared now and avoid the black cloud. My $0.02. Take it or leave it, but I’ve said my piece.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=coal-ash-is-more-radioactive-than-nuclear-waste

Would you like to start counting the number of people killed by coal plants verses nuclear reactors over the last 100 years? Or perhaps you’d like to stop while you’re ahead?

Nuclear is safer and more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels – and the new generation of nuclear reactors are even more safe and efficient.

Would you like to start counting the number of people killed by coal plants verses nuclear reactors over the last 100 years? Or perhaps you’d like to stop while you’re ahead? Nuclear is safer and more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels – and the new generation of nuclear reactors are even more safe and efficient.

Comparing it to other dirty energy sources is obtuse. I’m VERY obviously talking about SUSTAINABLE, cleaner energy sources like wind, solar, tidal, etc.

As the crisis here worsens, maybe it’s YOU that needs to stop while you’re already far behind???

And as far as your freedom to express you opinion – as I said before that’s all it is to you – an intellectual argument. It isn’t for me and I wouldn’t wish my situation on you.

Yes, yes – I know that most nuclear radiation is really some form of a wave/particle (or in the case of Alpha, a full Helium nuclei), but that’s not what they were trying to convey here.

Fortunately, washing off contaminated aircraft, and sealing up the ship to avoid contaminating the crew, is a pretty standard NBC drill for all warships.