What level 7 means in nuclear disasters?
What do you expect the Japanese government to reveal?
The scale of the disaster has reached the highest of level 7: Beyond level 7, nuclear scientists had not the guts to think of a worst case scenario.
And it is not over; and it is not yet under control; and the region is still witnessing horrible earthquake after shocks of magnitude 7 and over.
What do you expect the Japanese government to reveal?
1. “Brace for the worst! You are to die soon?”
2. “We have the good news and the bad one. The good news is that Japan managed to have the highest life expectancy on earth, above 75 years. The bad news is that Fatality reduced it to 30 years. Much lower than during the long deadly samurai period.”
Japanese officials announced on Tuesday morning that they were planning to raise the event level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from 5 to the maximum level of 7, the highest on the international scale for nuclear incidents.
It is the same level assigned to the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine.
The decision was made after Japan’s nuclear safety body determined that at one point after the March 11 earthquake, the plant was releasing 10,000 terabecquerels of iodine-131 for several hours. Level 7 accidents are defined as releasing tens of thousands of terabecquerels.
What I know, it is not a good idea to drink tap water.
What I know, it is not a good idea to eat fish: The ocean is irradiated to 500 km.
What I know, it is not recommended to eating most grown products in Japan…
“The INES [International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale] rating is not an indicator of a daily phenomena, but the assessment after careful consideration and calculation on the event that happened in the past,” Ken Morita of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) tells TIME. If you comprehended this statement, explain it to me, quick.
INES scale was designed in 1989 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The scale ranges from 1 (anomaly) to 7 (major accident). The scale is intended to easily communicate the magnitude of the catastrophe to the public; it is meant to indicate the seriousness of a nuclear event. No kidding.
For example, what level 5 means to the general public? Start demonstrating against nuclear plants? Go immediately underground, as deep as you could afford? Shut down this particular plant? Shut down ALL nuclear plants?
NISA (Remember Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency?) noted that the amount of radioactive material being released at Fukushima today is less than 1 terabecquerel. The agency said that to date, Fukushima has released only about 10% of the total radiation released 25 years ago at Chernobyl, or about 1.8 million terabecquerels.
The real question is: “For how long this amount of release will last? ” A century?
About 30 people, mostly workers, died in the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl, though the UN has estimated that the long-term death toll due to exposure could eventually be as high as 4,000. Forget the physical and emotional calamities of those who didn’t die yet, the the new born in the coming two decades…
Chernobyl is the only other event to have been given a rating of 7, an accident classified as having a major radioactive release with widespread impact on the environment and public health. According to INES, “Such a release would result in the possibility of acute health effects; delayed health effects over a wide area, possibly involving more than one country; long-term environmental consequences.”
Tuesday’s announcement comes on the back of a minor fire spotted by workers outside Fukushima’s Reactor 4 on Tuesday morning, shortly after three major aftershocks hit the beleaguered northeast in a span of 24 hours. T
hree people in Iwaki died in landslides triggered by the 7.1-magnitude aftershock on Monday night. The government also expanded the exclusion zone around Fukushima on Monday to include several towns within a 30 km radius. Residents had been told they could remain at home but were recommended to stay indoors. The towns were added to the mandatory evacuation zone of high levels of radiation.
Meanwhile, Greenpeace said that in a survey conducted in Fukushima last week, its team of experts found radiation levels 75 times higher than the government recommendation in 11 samples of vegetables from gardens and small farms. The environmental group also announced that it found radiation levels equivalent to an annual exposure of 5 millisieverts — the evacuation threshold for Chernobyl — at a playground in Fukushima City, pop. 300,000. Greenpeace is urging the government to delay the start of the school year.
Though raising Fukushima’s level to 7 may not herald any immediate worsening of events, it is sure to add to many residents’ growing concern — and feeling of helplessness — over what could happen at dozens of other nuclear reactors spread across this seismic archipelago.
On Sunday, more than 17,000 people protested at two demonstrations in Tokyo against nuclear power. It was the first time that Yohei Nakamura, 45, had ever been to a protest. “For a long time, I’ve been suspicious of nuclear power, but now I realize it’s a serious problem,” he said amid the crowds carrying placards and shouting slogans. He said anti-nuclear demonstrations were under covered in the Japanese press because of the influence of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns Fukushima.
“TEPCO is one of the most powerful companies in Japan,” Nakamura said. “They use a tremendous amount of money for advertising. If the mass media shows anti-nuclear-power activities like demonstrations, they risk losing TEPCO as an advertiser.”
You may refer to my previous article: https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/world-community-bracing-for-worst-case-scenario-what-is-systemic-degradation-of-work-ethics-in-nuclear-power-palnts/
Note: I extracted the news from the TIME.
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