There is no cure for radiation sickness, which is caused by body tissue exposed to radioactive substances. The symptoms are treated on a case by case basis since the degree of sickness and the symptoms vary from person to person. The effects cannot be reversed, but if they’re treated in a timely manner the damage may be contained.
The list of treatments mentioned in various sources for Radiation sickness includes the following list. Always seek professional medical advice about any treatment or change in treatment plans.
We have been dealing with Nuclear Technology without knowing the full implications of it.
Now the situation is serious and we are debating as to how to dispose of Contamination.
Learn to use less power and shut down Nuclear Plants,it is not worth our lives.
With operations to pump out massive amounts of contaminated water at the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant running into trouble, new ideas surfaced Wednesday to move the effort forward, including storing the tainted water in tankers and covering the reactor sites with fabric shrouds.
While many ideas are under consideration, no concrete decisions have been made, he said.
One of the ideas being mulled would be to cover the walls and ceilings of the reactor buildings damaged in explosions with special fabric capable of containing radiation.
However, the feasibility of the proposed ideas had yet to be studied.
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Radiology experts from Greenpeace urged the government Wednesday to expand the evacuation zone around the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant after they found high levels of radiation outside the 20-km mandatory no-go zone.
Jan van de Putte, the radioactivity safety adviser of the NGO, said the survey, taken on a road between the villages of Iitate and Tsushima in Fukushima Prefecture, saw a radiation level of 100 microsieverts per hour, despite being outside of the evacuation area.
This contrasts with the 7.86 microsieverts per hour measured in Iitate by the Fukushima Prefectural Government on Wednesday afternoon.
One would reach the annual limit of 1,000 microsieverts — or 1 millisievert — of radiation as set by international radiation authorities in about 10 hours in such an environment, van de Putte said, adding it is likely residents of Iitate, about 9 km outside the no-go zone, “have surpassed that level” already.
The team of experts at Greenpeace said they conducted their monitoring Saturday and Sunday, and found proof radioactivity hasn’t spread evenly from the reactors.
Plutonium that may have come from a reactor core at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant was detected in soil on the premises, indicating fuel rods suffered heavy damage, Tokyo Electric Power Co. has revealed.
Although Tepco said late Monday the amount detected, based on soil samples taken a week ago, is extremely small and not enough to harm human health, the latest finding indicated not just heavy damage to fuel rods but also that strong radioactive materials may be leaking from at least one reactor containment vessel.
A Tepco spokesman told reporters Tuesday the utility will continue to monitor plutonium levels in the soil in the plant but has no plans to expand its checks to beyond the premises for the time being.
“Plutonium is emitted only when the temperature (inside a reactor’s core) is really high. That shows how badly (the fuel rods) were damaged and how serious this accident is,” Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama said Tuesday. “Still, the amount is not an immediate threat to human health.”
According to Tepco, the plutonium levels were around the same as those detected in Japan after the United States and the Soviet Union conducted nuclear tests in the past.
Radioactive material originating from the troubled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan has been detected at various sites in the UK – almost 6,000 miles away.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said Tuesday that an air sampler in Glasgow had recorded the presence of radioactive iodine 131 associated with events at the quake-stricken Fukushima nuclear facility. However, radiation levels were “extremely low” and should not cause any concern amongst the public.
The measured radiation level of 300 micro-becquerels per cubic metre is much lower than the natural background radiation dose in the UK and poses no harm.
The measurements were consistent with those made at other stations including one in Oxfordshire as well as locations across Europe such as Iceland and Switzerland.
The UK’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) confirmed the current radiation levels were safe. “The dose received from inhaling air with these measured levels of iodine 131 is minuscule and would be very much less than the annual background radiation dose”, the agency said in a statement. However, it added that levels of radioactive iodine “may rise in the coming days and weeks” – but clarified the concentration would still be significantly below any level that would pose a health risk.
Seoul, South Korea, March 29, 2011 /WNCNews/ – Nuclear radiation from Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan continues to expand. After the Chinese authorities found traces of nuclear radiation from Fukushima, Japan in some areas in China, traces of radioactive iodine were also found in Seoul and other areas in South Korea.
Even, South Korean authorities have also begun to conduct examination to the fish caught in waters of the country.
The Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety (KINS) claimed to have detected traces of iodine-131 in Seoul and seven other places in South Korea. According to the South Korean agency, the amount of radioactivity which was found is very small so that it does not pose a risk to public health or the environment.
South Korean authorities have begun to examine the fish that were caught in to ensure the possibility of nuclear radiation contamination.
“No traces of radiation found so far in our fish or fish imported from Japan,” said a South Korean Agriculture Ministry official told AFP news agency on Tuesday (3/29).
He said that the South Korean government is currently testing the fish once a week. But, the frequency will be increased if the nuclear crisis in Japan continues to deteriorate.
Small amounts of radiation from Japan’s leaking Fukushima nuclear plant have spread across Asia.
But authorities say the traces are so small they pose no risk to human health.
The governments of China, South Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam have all reported that radiation from the Fukushima plant has drifted over their territories.
Traces have even drifted all the way to the United States, with rainwater in Ohio found to have been contaminated.
Each government says there is no risk at all to human health due to the low levels.
Chinese authorities have turned away a Japanese ship after detecting abnormal levels of radiation onboard.
There have been many lab tests in the country where they contaminate the water 5 times higher than what EPA allows for consumption. They test this and distill water, retest and they find the residue that is left behind contains all the heavy metals, which are classed as radioactive.
Most of the heavy metals have a boiling point of 3092 degrees F, meaning the metals actually boil at that point. The boiling point of water is 212 F which is 2800 F below that. Heavy Metals are left behind as waste in the pot. Radiation is in the same family in the periodic chart as these heavy metals.
Does this mean you can take contaminated water and make it clean? Yes. The process is called thermo distillation which is heat. This can be very expensive to do for everyone’s supply but just for your own, this is very easy.
If you get an electric one, around $200, it distills a gallon of water overnight. There are distillers that can run on propane gas as well and wood fires for those who live OFF THE GRID.
Nor people are sure about dumping nuclear waste into the sea.
TOKYO – Workers discovered new pools of radioactive water leaking from Japan’s crippled nuclear complex, officials said Monday, as emergency crews struggled to pump out hundreds of tons of contaminated water and bring the plant back under control.
Officials believe the contaminated water has sent radioactivity levels soaring at the coastal complex, and caused more radiation to seep into soil and seawater.
The Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant, 140 miles (220 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo, was crippled March 11 when a tsunami spawned by a powerful earthquake slammed into Japan’s northeastern coast. The huge wave engulfed much of the complex, and destroyed the crucial power systems needed to cool the complex’s nuclear fuel rods.
Since then, three of the complex’s six units are believed to have partially melted down, and emergency crews have struggled with everything from malfunctioning pumps to dangerous spikes in radiation that have forced temporary evacuations.
Confusion at the plant has intensified fears that the nuclear crisis will last weeks, months or years amid alarms over radiation making its way into produce, raw milk and even tap water as far away as Tokyo.
The troubles at the Fukushima complex have eclipsed Pennsylvania‘s 1979 crisis at Three Mile Island, when a partial meltdown raised fears of widespread radiation release, but is still well short of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, which killed at least 31 people with radiation sickness, raised long-term cancer rates, and spewed radiation for hundreds of miles (kilometers).
Photo Used With Permission of Joseph Gonyeau. Original Source: Virtual Nuclear Tourist
The spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor are the most radioactive of all nuclear wastes. When all the radiation given off by nuclear waste is tallied, the fuel rods give off 99% of it, in spite of having relatively small volume. There is, as of now, no permanent storage site of spent fuel rods. Temporary storage is being used while a permanent site is searched for and prepared.
When the spent fuel rods are removed from the reactor core, they are extremely hot and must be cooled down. Most nuclear power plants have a temporary storage pool next to the reactor. The spent rods are placed in the pool, where they can cool down. The pool is not filled with ordinary water but with boric acid, which helps to absorb some of the radiation given off by the radioactive nuclei inside the spent rods. The spent fuel rods are supposed to stay in the pool for only about 6 months, but, because there is no permanent storage site, they often stay there for years. Many power plants have had to enlarge their pools to make room for more rods. As pools fill, there are major problems. If the rods are placed too close together, the remaining nuclear fuel could go critical, starting a nuclear chain reaction. Thus, the rods must be monitored and it is very important that the pools do not become too crowded. Also, as an additional safety measure, neutron-absorbing materials similar to those used in control rods are placed amongst the fuel rods. Permanent disposal of the spent fuel is becoming more important as the pools become more and more crowded.
Another method of temporary storage is now used because of the overcrowding of pools. This is called dry storage (as opposed to “wet” storage which we outlined above). Basically, this entails taking the waste and putting it in reinforced casks or entombing it in concrete bunkers. This is after the waste has already spent about 5 years cooling in a pool. The casks are also usually located close to the reactor site.
Permanent Fuel Storage/Disposal:
There are many ideas about what to do with nuclear waste. The low-level (not extremely radioactive) waste can often be buried near the surface of the earth. It is not very dangerous and usually will have lost most of its radioactivity in a couple hundred years. The high-level waste, comprised mostly of spent fuel rods, is harder to get rid of. There are still plans for its disposal, however. Some of these include burying the waste under the ocean floor, storing it underground, and shooting it into space. The most promising option so far is burying the waste in the ground. This is called “deep geological disposal”. Because a spent fuel rod contains material that takes thousands of years to become stable (and non-radioactive), it must be contained for a very long time. If it is not contained, it could come in contact with human population centers and wildlife, posing a great danger to them. Therefore, the waste must be sealed up tightly. Also, if the waste is being stored underground, it must be stored in an area where there is little groundwater flowing through. If ground water does flow through a waste storage site, it could erode the containment canisters and carry waste away into the environment. Additionally, a disposal site must be found with little geological activity. We don’t want to put a waste disposal site on top of a fault line, where 1000 years in the future an earthquake will occur, releasing the buried waste into the environment.
The waste will probably be encapsulated in large casks designed to withstand corrosion, impacts, radiation, and temperature extremes. Special casks will also have to be used to transfer fuel rods from their holding pools and dry storage areas next to the reactor to the permanent geological storage site.
Highly radioactive iodine seeping from Japan’s damaged nuclear complex may be making its way into seawater farther north of the plant than previously thought, officials say, adding to radiation concerns as the crisis stretches into a third week.
Mounting problems, including badly miscalculated radiation figures and no place to store dangerously contaminated water, have stymied emergency workers struggling to cool down the overheating plant and avert a disaster with global implications.
The coastal Fukushima Daiichi power plant, 220 kilometres northeast of Tokyo, has been leaking radiation since a magnitude-9.0 quake on March 11 triggered a tsunami that engulfed the complex. The wave knocked out power to the system that cools the dangerously hot nuclear fuel rods.
On Monday, workers resumed the laborious yet urgent task of pumping out the hundreds of tons of radioactive water inside several buildings at the six-unit plant. The water must be removed and safely stored before work can continue to power up the plant’s cooling system, nuclear safety officials said. That process alone could take weeks, experts say.
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