The earth is being bombarded with plumes of different forms of radiation right now from the Japanese melt-down. What is leaking out is affecting Japan most immediately and most devastatingly, and sadly the lack of good information about the severity of the situation has left some of us wondering what on earth is going on.
My intuition has said from the start that they weren't going to report the full range of the problem, choosing to downplay it shot of being able to do something constructive. What would have been constructive, I say, is to do what Russia did when they had a nuclear problem; they shipped their people out of the area on freight trains. Maybe not high class transport, but it saved untold lives and untold suffering from limiting the exposure to radiation.
In the United States and Canada, we are the first after Japan to receive the radioactive fallout. Here, just as in Japan, the numbers have been scarce and the scope of the problem has been down played. The question innevitably becomes "what do those who are the hardest hit do?" My answer is that its better to have the information so that something can be done in order to lessen the impact on human life. It sorrows me to think how those on the West Coast of our country are having to bite the bullet and go on with life because its not practical for millions of people to just get up and move. Sure, it would be a real problem and it would have a real effect on jobs, the economy, and all the rest. But consider what the Dutch are seeing in their monitoring that does not get reported elsewhere. We now have American monitoring sites which have been shut down or idled. Some of the particulate cannot be read via a geiger counter. EPA limits have long been suspect and we all know that small amounts of something over long periods can do same or greater damage that larger doses for shorter periods.
I am not interested in spreading fear. I am, however, interested in spreading information for those who want to know more and who can handle the fact that we are looking at an event that dwarfs Chernobyl. If this kind of thing is something that will upset you, knowing more, then the suggestion I make is that you ignore the links I am providing. Already heads of the plant in Japan have resigned because they say that the truth has not been told and they do not want to be caught in the net of deception.
So here goes. First is a chart of radiation exposure so you can get an idea as to what causes what, just general information, nothing scary (unless you read up on what major radiation exposure can do)
Radiation Information Chart
These are forecasts and you have to look close for the English
EURAD
Flexpart models and weather info for the area near the Plant
Fukushima Weather Info
Jet stream forecasting
http://squall.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/CT/animate.arctic.color.0.html
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/tropicalwx/satpix/nwpac_ir4_l…
The following are links to other radiation monitoring sites:
http://www.woweather.com/weather/news/fukushima?LANG=us&a…
http://eurdeppub.jrc.it/eurdeppub/home.aspx#
http://www.csn.es/index.php?option=com_maps&view=mapp…
http://www.epa.gov (click on radiation update)
http://www.irsn.fr/EN/Pages/home.aspx
http://www.nucleartourist.com/
http://www.stuk.fi/index_en.html
http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/index.html
http://www.yle.fi/tekstitv/html/P867_02.html
http://www.mapion.co.jp/topics/genpatu/
http://strahlenbelastung.wo-wann-wer.de/
Information on Cesium (which is being released)
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/cesium.html
All of this is for informational use because of what seems to be a dearth of forthcoming information. There is a lot of Dutch testing because the Dutch were at the forefront of the testing when the Russian explosion occurred in 1998 at the power plant there.
Back in the late 40's Eisenhower was going to go from one building to the next while it was raining. At the time he was told by a general that he couldn't do that, that they had set off some nuclear bombs in the west and there would be particulate raining down. If they knew the risk back then, they know the risk now. There was also a movie put out in the 80's (I think) entitled The Atomic Cafe which showed how the popular media went along with a campaign to lie to the American people about the risks associated with nuclear bombs and nuclear radiation. This was supposedly done to limit panic in the event of air raids or other potential risks of having bombs dropped on the citizenry from our Russian neighbors (who were deemed our enemies just to keep life interesting back in the day).
UPDATE: 5/14/2001
The NILU website, which has been the most forthcoming site for radiation levels (this is the Dutch site mentioned above) has taken its information down. Very troubling. Why would they do this? To quell fear? So sorry to have to put this out there, but since others are not, this is a source that has the information which comes with a very strange connection to an old movie. Welcome to Zardoz......some of the info is not completely clear...is this merely a way of running forecasts or inputting data or is it more? I wish there was more information on this, but am putting this here for those interested in finding out more....
My intuition has said from the start that they weren't going to report the full range of the problem, choosing to downplay it shot of being able to do something constructive. What would have been constructive, I say, is to do what Russia did when they had a nuclear problem; they shipped their people out of the area on freight trains. Maybe not high class transport, but it saved untold lives and untold suffering from limiting the exposure to radiation.
In the United States and Canada, we are the first after Japan to receive the radioactive fallout. Here, just as in Japan, the numbers have been scarce and the scope of the problem has been down played. The question innevitably becomes "what do those who are the hardest hit do?" My answer is that its better to have the information so that something can be done in order to lessen the impact on human life. It sorrows me to think how those on the West Coast of our country are having to bite the bullet and go on with life because its not practical for millions of people to just get up and move. Sure, it would be a real problem and it would have a real effect on jobs, the economy, and all the rest. But consider what the Dutch are seeing in their monitoring that does not get reported elsewhere. We now have American monitoring sites which have been shut down or idled. Some of the particulate cannot be read via a geiger counter. EPA limits have long been suspect and we all know that small amounts of something over long periods can do same or greater damage that larger doses for shorter periods.
I am not interested in spreading fear. I am, however, interested in spreading information for those who want to know more and who can handle the fact that we are looking at an event that dwarfs Chernobyl. If this kind of thing is something that will upset you, knowing more, then the suggestion I make is that you ignore the links I am providing. Already heads of the plant in Japan have resigned because they say that the truth has not been told and they do not want to be caught in the net of deception.
So here goes. First is a chart of radiation exposure so you can get an idea as to what causes what, just general information, nothing scary (unless you read up on what major radiation exposure can do)
Radiation Information Chart
These are forecasts and you have to look close for the English
EURAD
Flexpart models and weather info for the area near the Plant
Fukushima Weather Info
Jet stream forecasting
http://squall.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/CT/animate.arctic.color.0.html
http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/srh/tropicalwx/satpix/nwpac_ir4_l…
The following are links to other radiation monitoring sites:
http://www.woweather.com/weather/news/fukushima?LANG=us&a…
http://eurdeppub.jrc.it/eurdeppub/home.aspx#
http://www.csn.es/index.php?option=com_maps&view=mapp…
http://www.epa.gov (click on radiation update)
http://www.irsn.fr/EN/Pages/home.aspx
http://www.nucleartourist.com/
http://www.stuk.fi/index_en.html
http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/index.html
http://www.yle.fi/tekstitv/html/P867_02.html
http://www.mapion.co.jp/topics/genpatu/
http://strahlenbelastung.wo-wann-wer.de/
Information on Cesium (which is being released)
http://www.epa.gov/rpdweb00/radionuclides/cesium.html
All of this is for informational use because of what seems to be a dearth of forthcoming information. There is a lot of Dutch testing because the Dutch were at the forefront of the testing when the Russian explosion occurred in 1998 at the power plant there.
Back in the late 40's Eisenhower was going to go from one building to the next while it was raining. At the time he was told by a general that he couldn't do that, that they had set off some nuclear bombs in the west and there would be particulate raining down. If they knew the risk back then, they know the risk now. There was also a movie put out in the 80's (I think) entitled The Atomic Cafe which showed how the popular media went along with a campaign to lie to the American people about the risks associated with nuclear bombs and nuclear radiation. This was supposedly done to limit panic in the event of air raids or other potential risks of having bombs dropped on the citizenry from our Russian neighbors (who were deemed our enemies just to keep life interesting back in the day).
UPDATE: 5/14/2001
The NILU website, which has been the most forthcoming site for radiation levels (this is the Dutch site mentioned above) has taken its information down. Very troubling. Why would they do this? To quell fear? So sorry to have to put this out there, but since others are not, this is a source that has the information which comes with a very strange connection to an old movie. Welcome to Zardoz......some of the info is not completely clear...is this merely a way of running forecasts or inputting data or is it more? I wish there was more information on this, but am putting this here for those interested in finding out more....
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