Fukushima Could Kill 920 Million People

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Fukushima

Just in case you ever wonder about the worst-case scenario at Fukushima…

If all the plutonium at Fukushima burns and disperses into the atmosphere, a LOW ESTIMATE of the death-toll adds up to about 920,000,000 people, and that’s applying the nuclear industry’s own “myth-busting” refutation of Ralph Nader’s “alarmist” arithmetic.

A commonly cited quote by Ralph Nader, states that a pound of plutonium dust spread into the atmosphere would be enough to kill 8 billion people. However, the math shows that one pound of plutonium could kill no more than 2 million people by inhalation. This makes the toxicity of plutonium roughly equivalent with that of nerve gas.

And isn’t that soothing!

Plutonium is almost the same as oatmeal!

It’s only as toxic as nerve gas!

But there’s a heck of a lot of that plutonium-oatmeal stored at Fukushima!

The 1,458 tons of plutonium held as “Unirradiated new fuel at reactor sites etc.” includes 210 kg at Fukushima I-3 (TEPCO).

210 kilograms is about 460 pounds, and even if we accept the low-ball estimate of 2,000,000 fatalities per pound, that’s still an awful lot of people!

460 X 2000000 = 920,000,000 people.

 

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  1. In a moist environment, plutonium forms hydrides on its surface, which are pyrophoric and may ignite in air at room temperature. Plutonium expands up to 70% in volume as it oxidizes and thus may break its container.[104] The radioactivity of the burning material is an additional hazard.

  2. …you should never balk.  What’s a billion people, more or less, anyway.  And we can always put Malea and Sasha inside, deep down into Mount Weather, insulated by multi-layered lead to protect their procreative organs.

    Ah Brave World which has such organs so protected!  

    • mplo on June 2, 2011 at 21:11

    When are people going to wake. the. fuck. up???!?

  3. It it not that bad, and the contamination will not poison the planet.

    Keep your heads.

    Warmest regards,

    Doc

    • RUKind on June 3, 2011 at 18:41

    To be brutal, it will help alleviate the coming world famine and water shortage. Hell, it may even help with carbon emissions.

    Sick stuff but true.

  4. From: Asia-Pacific News

    High levels of radiation were detected at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in north-eastern Japan, the operator said Saturday.

    Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it sent a robot into the building of reactor 1 Friday and detected up to 4,000 millisieverts per hour at the south-east corner of the building.

    RADIATION EXPOSURES (from MIT)

    4,000mSv … lethal dose (50%chance of death)

                mSv=millisievert

    50mSv … US rad worker annual limit

    2mSv … Background — one year at sea level

    …not to worry…it’s inside the building

    …and from “Tokyo Shimbun”:

    The Ministry of Education and Science announced on June 3 that the estimated cumulative radiation level from March 12 to May 25 at one location in Namie-machi Fukushima Prefecture, 22 kilometers northwest of Fukushima I Nuke Plant, was 73.9 millisieverts.

    …not to worry…it’s 2&1/2 month cumulative at a distance of 22 kilometers…

    …and from John Donne,

    Do not ask for whom the bell tolls

    It tolls for thee…

  5. amount of information and I do not know anything about this site, but I did note a couple of comments by doctors (see the bolded red by scrolling down a bit).  Plutonium is just plain deadly — exposure to it is tantamount to a shot in the arm — loaded with cancer!

    Infinite Unknown

    “Fukushima Reactor No. 3 Explosion Blew PLUTONIUM and URANIUM All Over The Place – Deadly MSM Silence . . . .  . “

  6. information that was dated May 9, 2011.

    Here are the latest entries on Fukushima:  Infinite Unknown

    Today’s date:  “Fukushima: 4,000 Millisieverts Per Hour Detected Inside No. 1 Reactor Building”

    and others!

    There are no words.

    If only global warming had been/were being being properly addressed, maybe . . . . . !  

    (I noted that this site deals in many other global issues, as well)

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