5 ms·
Not trying to be contrary, just sharing what I have heard. I don't know what you consider 'Serious Harm to Humans', but as of Sunday, there were an assumed 160
by harisenbon 16y ago
Not trying to be contrary, just sharing what I have heard.
I don't know what you consider 'Serious Harm to Humans', but as of Sunday, there were an assumed 160 people with radiation exposure (9 confirmed).[0]
From what I remember on the news the other day, the reason for the failures of the plants was the fact that they had not conceived of an earthquake and tsunami of this magnitude. PM Kan said that there were adequate protections in place for the facilities, but the earthquake was beyond the conceived scope of the protection.
Also, while 20km from site 1 have been evacuated, they've needed to extend the radiation-affected area to 30km. Unfortunately, it's too wide of an area to evacuate, so they have told people to stay in their homes.
[0]http://jp.reuters.com/article/mostViewedNews/idJPJAPAN-19971220110313 http://jp.reuters.com/article/mostViewedNews/idJPJAPAN-19971...
edited: edited "poisoning" into "exposure"
edited: Added evacuation distances
- patio11 16y agoThis is a very consequential difference: 被ばく does not mean radiation poisoning, it means radiation exposure. You can have sub-clinical (i.e. no impact to health) exposure. For example, if you've ever had a dental X-ray, you've been hibaku'ed. So far, the only report of radiation poisoning which I've heard is a SDF member who was on-site when one of the steam explosions happened.
- harisenbon 16y agoSorry, you are right. I actually don't know at what point exposure becomes poisoning. I believe there were 3 SDF members who were hospitalized for radiation, but I could be wrong (also, I read it on the 共産党 site, so who knows)
- alextgordon 16y agoWikipedia has a table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning#Exposure_levels http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_poisoning#Exposure_le... According to that, fatal poisoning starts at around 2 Sv. According to the BBC, levels in the surrounding area are 8 mSv per hour, so not enough for acute poisoning given the timings, though not at all good for you. For comparison, a chest x-ray is 60 µSv.