2 guys a geiger counter and the Fukushima Exclusion zone

[CptStern]

A Japanese journalist, Tetsuo Jimbo, ventured through the evacuation zone last Sunday, and filed the following video report.

He says that, inside the evacuation zone, homes,building, roads and bridges, which were torn down by Tsunami, are left completely untouched, and the herd of cattle and pet dogs, left behind by the owners, wonders around the town while the radiation level remains far beyond legal limits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp9iJ3pPuL8&hd=1

the black retriever looks exactly like my dog right down to the same collar

 

[Mr Stabby]

That's depressing.

 

[StarBob]

Seems like the radiation has gone up fairly significantly in those areas nearer to the reactor... I figure it's at least 1 mSv/hr near the reactors so those people still working there probably aren't going to be in good shape if they're sticking around too long. I assume they're taking plenty of precautions though and have geiger counters of their own. I figure those first dogs are fine and probably will be fine unless they go running off to where that last little guy or those cows were... they probably won't be too healthy over the next month or so...

 

[unozero]

sad.....

 

[Shamrock]

It's another Chernobyl. D:

 

[StarBob]

It's another Chernobyl. D:

Not really... Chernobyl was much much worse. It was a full meltdown and pretty much all of the workers that tried to contain it were killed or had their lives changed significantly. It will probably have the same residual effect of a dead zone for a while... not the 100 year kind of thing I'm sure but I doubt people will even want to be around there.

 

[jimbo118]

Seems like the radiation has gone up fairly significantly in those areas nearer to the reactor... I figure it's at least 1 mSv/hr near the reactors so those people still working there probably aren't going to be in good shape if they're sticking around too long. I assume they're taking plenty of precautions though and have geiger counters of their own. I figure those first dogs are fine and probably will be fine unless they go running off to where that last little guy or those cows were... they probably won't be too healthy over the next month or so...

The mother of one of the workers said in an interview that her son told her he and his fellow workers expect to die.

 

[PvtRyan]

The mother of one of the workers said in an interview that her son told her he and his fellow workers expect to die.

Eh, that's a bit dramatic don't you think? If radiation levels were that high, they would be suffering from radiation sickness by now. But I suppose "workers expect to die... within 60 years or so after a 5% increased cancer risk" makes for a less interesting headline.

Among the 370 workers working to bring stability to the damaged reactor units of the Daiichi plant, 21 have so far experienced radiation doses of over 100 millisieverts.

Japanese authorities have authorised exposures of up to 250 millisieverts in the efforts to bring the Fukushima situation under full control. So far no-one has been exposed to these levels.

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Deaths_confirmed_at_Fukushima_Daiichi_0304111.html

So 21 people have been exposed to more than 100 mSv and no one over 250 mSv. That's far below what would cause death within a short period.

 

[kazsymonds]

Damn metric radiation.