Austinites fearing effects of Japanese fallout..wait, what?! (Charlotte, China: appointed, insurance)

[drshdw]

Originally Posted by WoodyTX

Garbage. The radiation leakage so far is minor. Most of it will fall to the ground as precipitation, and what does get here will be so dispersed that it will be undetectable.

I get a laugh out of my "science is important" friends scaring themselves over this. Yes, science is important, which is why you should look into the qualifications of anyone providing your scientific advice. When the 'experts' on the news have a background as an anti-nuclear activist and a manager of a 'peace fund' (as in a recent article), it's not exactly news.

Yes but 4 out of 6 reactors are going to **** and the other 2 are getting there.

[Charlottex]

Blame the hysteria on the media, as usual. Last night I saw Diane Sawyer talking about the same thing on national news & there are many people who actually believe she is an expert... now that's sad...

[oldtoiletsmkgdflrpots]

Balloons can get here so why can't the air?

[neddy]

If you going to get supplies do it because of whats up in Glen Rose and not Japan...

[HappyTexan]

People should have some anyway..we have 2 nuke plants up north (Glen Rose) and 2 down south (Bay City).

All it takes is one accident.
When Three Mile Island happened the government ordered 275K of KI pills only they got there 6 days after they were needed.

I've lived in Florida ..nuke plants there and now Texas ..nuke plants here.
I keep some in stock after reading about the government "delay" on Three Mile Island.

[loves2read]

the iodine pills only protect your thyroid--does nothing for other body parts that might be contaminated

I just feel that the Japanese with their history of no communication of failure would be the worst people in the world to admit there is a screw up in the works
I have read so many contradictory "experts" who aren't there and probably don't have any more first-hand info than we do from listening to the news
they all need to just shut up--
I read two items that made me believe from the get go that this was more serious than it was being portrayed in the media
1--the Japanese company that owns/manages these plants has been cited numerous times in the past for failure to disclose accurately about problems with their plants--where rules were not followed, where there were breaches in protocol--some of which were serious violations--
2--the GE engineer that was helping design this type of reactor in the 70s resigned his job because he said the design was being compromised for economic reasons--
that the type of containment needed in case of a dire emergency--like having an off the chart earthquake followed by tsunami --was much stronger to contain the elements if they started to burn--
which is exactly what is happening now

AND I also read a couple of stories about human error AFTER the disaster struck--not problems caused by earthquake or tsunami--but just people who did not do their jobs
one of them being the worker who was assigned the task of adding diesel fuel to a water pump to keep water pumping in to cool reactor space--
he walked away and did not put any fuel in the pump--it ran out and then it could not be restarted--
totally screwed up that system...

if HUMAN error is what has lead to this disaster then that is something totally different from the "natural" elements that caused the initial problems...

I don't trust the Japanese to be forthcoming about what happened and why things went wrong--
I think there needs to be a multi-national force of nuclear engineers in there to assess the damage
also Japanese are known for their reluctance to "think outside the box"--to do something against protocol--much more into following the rules than doing something different--and in an emergency sometimes you have to be flexible about what is the right solution to problem--vs following a chart
so it might have been a better option to make an immediate assessment of ALL likely damage to do effective triage--vs going down the steps of check 1, check 2, check 3
They thought the cooling ponds on one reactor were in danger and started to work on them when they were not really a problem AT THAT TIME-=-there were more serious problems INSIDE the rectors that they were not taking care of--
screwup #2--fairlure to prioritize correctly

so I think while they may be very brave in returning to the plant with such high levels of radiation--
I think they also have part of the responsibility for letting this get out of control--

they should have had helicopters dropping water into those cooling ponds WAY before now when the radiation is too strong--
now they will have to do it from higher heights which likely will cause more problems than benefits...

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

People should have some anyway..we have 2 nuke plants up north (Glen Rose) and 2 down south (Bay City).

All it takes is one accident.
When Three Mile Island happened the government ordered 275K of KI pills only they got there 6 days after they were needed.

I've lived in Florida ..nuke plants there and now Texas ..nuke plants here.
I keep some in stock after reading about the government "delay" on Three Mile Island.

There is no magic pill.

"One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother* gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall"

*government

Here is an interesting animated jet stream website. If you set it to show how the jet stream has moved for the last 5 days, you can see that the air in the jet stream over Japan has made it all the way to the East Coast of the US by now.

Animation of Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream Analyses

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by CptnRn

There is no magic pill.



Here is an interesting animated jet stream website. If you set it to show how the jet stream has moved for the last 5 days, you can see that the air in the jet stream over Japan has made it all the way to the East Coast of the US by now.

Animation of Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream Analyses

If you read my post I mentioned the 4 nuke plants in Texas.
That is good enough reason to have some in stock in your home.

That's just good prep for emergencies.
I'm not worried about any nuclear cloud hovering over Austin.

[hoffdano]

I want more radiation. I am building a giant collector in my back yard (because of no HOA, I can do that) to act as a funnel.

I want to see if our scorpions, tarantulas, and snakes can grow even larger.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I want more radiation. I am building a giant collector in my back yard (because of no HOA, I can do that) to act as a funnel.

I want to see if our scorpions, tarantulas, and snakes can grow even larger.

Could you fry the fire ants while you're at it.
I don't think anyone will miss them.