Michael Rich Loc: Lapine Oregon

So to actually say for my understanding..it's either to early in the mix of protons and neutrons to get sense of real danger..or the truth could already be negative.

EN Submarine Qualified Loc: Wisconsin East coast

Yep and gamma is not the only radiation from space. Even neutrons make it in. I am not sure about now but early Navy reactor plants didn't have neutron sources but employed the 'pull and wait' start ups. Wait for an incident neutron to cause a fission and with a bit of luck, you will get a chain reaction going. I'm sure there is a whole host of other radiation hitting us especially from the sun.
Of course effects of radiation are cumulative. So is drinking too much water or booze or eating too much food. That is why dose rates are established and adhered to.
A bit of nuke stuff here. There are several ways to quantify radiation.Europe has different terminology but there are equivalents available. One we use is the Curie. If I remember correctly, a curie is equal to 10 to the 10th events per second. That would be a whole bunch of critters hitting you. All determined of course by distance and shielding and your cross section. Piping people use gamma sources to check their welds to ensure full penetration, etc. You surely wouldn't want to carry that source with you but as long as properly shielded and only projected to the area desired, it is usable. Just because there is a source of radiation on the planet doesn't mean you are going to die from it.
Another term is a REM that stands for Radiation Equivalent Man. it takes into consideration the type of radiation and it's energy level. Simply stated a 30 mev (million electron volt) alpha causes a heap more damage to a person than a 1 mev gamma field. Again, time and distance determines your dose. You will get no dose from Japan over here unless you bring some source over here. Could happen I would guess but I still have a hard time getting the stuff airborne to drift over here and don't forget dispersal. Which simply put even if a Curie of activity got airborne and headed this way, it will be widely dispersed so a significant dose to any particular person is unlikely.

Docadhoc Loc: Elsewhere

And how does a particle of fuel heavier than water, attach to said water and move anywhere let alone 5,000 miles?

This is a good argument for fusion. Unlimited power and much easier to contain.

I wonder how many people know that when they watched their old tube TVs they were absorbing radiation? The term orthicon generator comes to mind.

pafret Loc: Northeast

Who told you that it was the fuel which was seeping into the ocean? Radiation comes in many spectrums, visible light is radiation, man made and natural (Lightning strike) radio waves permeate the atmosphere. Grab an oscilloscope probe, turn up the gain and find out you are a receiving antenna for 60 cycle radio waves emanating from our power line system. You get radiation in the form of X-Rays when you get your teeth checked. None of these is the same spectrum as Gamma Radiation. Radioactive material exists everywheere in the earth, it occurs in mine-able quantities in limited areas and must be further refined to produce an ore called Yellowcake. Nevertheless, it was radiating when it was widely dispersed. It is only when super refined that it can be used to generate power or create bombs.

Fusion has never been achieved except under laboratory conditions with a massive influx of energy to drive the fields, which compress the radioactive material. It uses more energy than is derived from the reaction and no attempt to produce fusion has been able to sustain the process for more than a few seconds. The best effort so far has been Princeton University's 1980 Tokomak reactor and the best they hoped for was to get out as much energy as they put in.

Carol Kelly

We were warned by the government about the radioactive rain and snow. Alas, not until our third year. This kept me up most of last night because it had me wondering about my Beth. I had taken her to the doctor because of a stuffy nose, but he assured me I was just being overly cautious and then it happened. This may have had no impact on anyone else, but I can't stop thinking about it. I'm saying nothing to anyone but on here I'll just keep dumping it.

Docadhoc Loc: Elsewhere

The contamination comes from the decaying fuel source. The radiation dissipates in water. Water is the barrier used to contain the fuel in the reactor. The source continues to release the radiation. The source is much heavier than water and can not be carried by the water. Radiation is not dye and if it was, Brownian movement would cause it to disperse evenly. You would not see it moved by any ocean current at all because Brownian movement is not subject to external force.

Docadhoc Loc: Elsewhere

As far as fusion goes, Fermi Labs in Batavia, IL is the world leader and it is attaining ignition temp that is the hurdle. That may be achieved with the next generation of superconductors. If we could sustain the reaction for your few seconds, the reaction would be self sustaining. Deuterium from sea water would power the planet forever.

EN Submarine Qualified Loc: Wisconsin East coast

Fair! Will define a couple terms. Contamination is used in its usual way. Dog manure while in the dog is fine when you get it on the lawn, it is contamination. Contamination does not come from the decaying fuel source.
Not quite. The word contamination is unwanted residue of any type where it doesn't belong. Sneezing in your hand and then gripping a door knob for instance, leaves the doorknob contaminated with germs.
In the case of radioactive contamination, particulate matter that is found where it is unexpected or doesn't belong can be referred to as contamination.
Just a little on fabrication of fuel assemblies as used in a reactor plant. Follow along. One of the metals used to make fuel assemblies is zirconium. Tubing is made from this element for several reasons, non rusting, strong and not affected by heat normally found in a reactor. Also has a low cross section for absorbing neutrons which might be needed to keep the chain reaction going. The Uranium fuel is enriched to some 3 % of the fissionable isotope (U235). Then it is sintered and compressed into pellets. These are inserted into the zirconium tubing and sealed. Normally there is no leakage out of the tubing of anything ( solids/gas or anything else. Therefore there is no contamination. Sure there are radioactive elements inside the tube from fissioning of the Uranium but ideally every thing is inside the 'cladding'.
In the case of the plant about which we are writing was melting of at least some of the fuel asseblies. This of course let the fission products out of the cladding. Now if any of this gets out of the reactor system and is found where it is not expected, you could call it contamination. But that isn't the real problem. The spent fuel is radioactive and the fission products send off radiation in an attempt to get back to a ground level stable isotope. This is not contamination in the true sense of the word but a source of radiation to be dealt with.
I have written this several times in the past couple days. The fission process in a reactor results in the splitting of the Uranium atom into at least 2 daughter products(fission products). The 92 protons of the Uranium are divided between the daughters so their total is the same atomic weight of the Uranium. That isn't the problem. It is the 143 neutrons in the Uranium atom which get distributed between the daughters. Nature requires stability so in a stable isotope of an element, for instance gold or lead, there is no radioactivity because the Proton Neutron ratio is acceptable. And yes gold or lead might be one of the daughter products with some random allotment of neutrons. Wherein lies the problem. Whatever the daughter is, it will decay to a stable atom of the element as determined by its proton number( Hydrogen 1 all the way to Uranium 92.) This is going to happen whether in a reactor or wherever it is found. When spent fuel is removed from a reactor the fission products(unused fuel and the daughters heat is being regenerated. This heat must be removed or you have melting. The Japanese plant suffered a big time tsunami and lost all power. Even the emergency diesels were wiped out. Pumps were lost. Bottom line, no core cooling. Result cladding breach and melting because of the radioactivity. There is a name for the heat released now, it is decay heat. There are systems in the plant to address this of course and all would have been ok if it had been a tsunami within the design of the plant but it was a 1000 year tsunami and you can't effectively plan and design for ever conceivable event.

Just trying to tell you what radiation and contamination are. If no one brings any of the fission products over and puts it on your sofa, you don't have and will not have a contamination problem. Radioactive decay results in the release of energy (gamma, x- rays , particles like alpha, beta, positrons, neutrons and maybe a couple others. The distance any of these can travel is finite. You needn't sweat radiation from Japan. It won't reach you. As long as the spent fuel stays over there, you don't have to sweat it and you wouldn't even be aware of what those poor rascals are going through to get this thing over with. Just an example, in my career, I performed the duties of core load supervisor many times. This involves taking the closure head from the reactor. The fuel is covered by water and the area where we are handling fuel is also flooded. You can look right into the reactor. The fuel assemblies were 12 feet long and there were 121 of them. About 1/3 will be replaced. Point I am making is the water provides shielding even as the 12 assembly is lifted up to get it out of the reactor and to storage. All this is ongoing in an area where the radiation is non-existent due to the shielding of the water. The distance to the fuel is about 20 feet so we can say that 20 feet of water will shield us from the whole core of fuel assemblies.
Go ahead, ask questions, I'll do my best to help out. By the way, everything, I write is original and off the top of my head. Having spent 32 years in a nuke plant as a shift supervisor doesn't leave you. And you surely don't forget the years of training, exams, walk- throughs, simulator time, and years of operating two of the things safely. In all my time at the plant, I accumulated 5 REM lifetime dose Don't know what a REM is. Google it.












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