On 30/08/2012 08:33, dennis@home wrote:


"harry" wrote in message
...

The reason nobody died of radiation poisoning at Fukushima is that the
population was moved out pronto. As simple as that.

No it isn't as simple as that. The dose rate even in the hot spots would
only shorten life by a few years except for an unlucky few that got a
hot alpha emitting particle in their lungs and/or smoke.

Even the workers inside the plant did not get acute radiation injuries
they mostly slipped on twisted metal or were injured by debris from
*chemical* explosions caused by build up of hydrogen gas. eg

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/1237...-caualties.htm

By comparison the criticality splash up at Tokaimura killed two
operators from immediate acute radiation sickness, and gave one a
seriously life shortening zap and 120 people were above 1mSv dose.

If it was as safe as you seem to think, the could have stayed at home.

That is the whole point, they could have stayed at home.

Some areas needed to be evacuated and some were not evacuated in a
timely fashion so that hot rain fell on them. It wasn't all that hot in
the general scheme of things but it was a lot more than civilians are
supposed to be exposed to routinely. Therein lies the problem.

The difficulty is with hot airborne particles that can get into the
lungs. You can survive a lot better with filtered air. Blocking
radioactive iodine uptake in people is also important early on.

The authorities chose to move people away because they were unsure what
would happen next and whether a major containment breach with massive
releases of radiation was in progress. They were in a no win situation.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown