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Even worse: >>“We were probably floating in contaminated water without knowing it for a day and a half before we got hit by that plume,” said Cooper, whose car

Even worse: >>“We were probably floating in contaminated water without knowing it for a day and a half before we got hit by that plume,” said Cooper, whose career as a third-class petty officer ended five months after the disaster for health reasons. The toxic seawater was sucked into the ship’s desalinization system, flowing out of its faucets and showers — still radioactive — and into the crew member’s bodies. Toxic seawater a hundred miles offshore???? You can't make up anything more ridiculous.

Natsu 13y ago
This source is... less than reliable as they have no idea what they're talking about. It's not hard to find high school students with a better grasp of this subject than this reporter, sadly. Apparently there are still many sources that have yet to figure out that things like dosage, length of exposure and type of radiation matter quite a bit, though oddly enough, it seems like many would be more likely to understand this if it were ordinary toxic chemical exposure. That said, I wouldn't weigh things too heavily either way, just because these folks are breaking the news. I very much doubt we have the whole story here and I would prefer not to weigh in until all the information is out. Other commentators on HN have noted that this was a nuclear carrier, so there should be proper records of their exposure (not to mention alternate routes of exposure...) which should be properly evaluated before rushing to judgement here, but there are simply too many possibilities to sensibly evaluate them all without more information. For example, the article makes it sound like they were exposed to radioactive iodine (due to the thyroid conditions), something I would have expected the carrier to detect, and for which we have reasonable counter-measures (iodine pills). I do not have any insight into what went wrong, but I would focus my investigation on their records of exposure, any treatments, etc. My gut tells me that someone screwed up here, but we lack information sufficient to determine who, and everything is suspect. That aside, radiation sickness is a terrible thing, and hope they are able to recover.

Natsu 13y ago

This source is... less than reliable as they have no idea what they're talking about. It's not hard to find high school students with a better grasp of this subject than this reporter, sadly. Apparently there are still many sources that have yet to figure out that things like dosage, length of exposure and type of radiation matter quite a bit, though oddly enough, it seems like many would be more likely to understand this if it were ordinary toxic chemical exposure. That said, I wouldn't weigh things too heavily either way, just because these folks are breaking the news. I very much doubt we have the whole story here and I would prefer not to weigh in until all the information is out. Other commentators on HN have noted that this was a nuclear carrier, so there should be proper records of their exposure (not to mention alternate routes of exposure...) which should be properly evaluated before rushing to judgement here, but there are simply too many possibilities to sensibly evaluate them all without more information. For example, the article makes it sound like they were exposed to radioactive iodine (due to the thyroid conditions), something I would have expected the carrier to detect, and for which we have reasonable counter-measures (iodine pills). I do not have any insight into what went wrong, but I would focus my investigation on their records of exposure, any treatments, etc. My gut tells me that someone screwed up here, but we lack information sufficient to determine who, and everything is suspect. That aside, radiation sickness is a terrible thing, and hope they are able to recover.