[ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] Japan quake not seen slowingU.S.nuclear revi.val TEPCO Release gives enogh ammunition to anti nuclear activists

[parthasarathy k s]

Dear Sandy,

The anti nuclear activists have many reasons to rejoice.The brief press release from TEPCO contains adequate ammunition! There were no technicians to measure radioactivity as the evacuation order was implemented!!

Now the remedy suggested is to put in place a system in which other staff can make radiation measurements.I have noted this tendency in my country also, the false belief that any one can do radioactivity measurements. 
 One of the claims of engineers and tehnologists is that they are also good health physicists!

We know that making measurements is easy whereas interpreting the data correctly involves different type of expertise and insight. I remember that immediately after TMI accident  the mangement hired a private firm to make whole body radioactivity measurements of some members of the public and workers, The company came out with the startling  revelation that they identified radium in the subjects!.

Actually what they measured was radon daughters, a well known contaminant. Besides this,the company did not calibrate its instruments properly to identify I-131 and other trelevant fission produts! This note is based on my memory and I believe that the points were included in the report of the President's Commission which reviewed TMI accident.

The failure of the communication system at the Japanese reactors was also predictable. Was it  a case of common mode failure! I could not believe that that there was no dedicated communication system  for use in an emergency at the power station.

In India, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board  sends observers to review off site mergency drills. One of their observations during the earllier drills was the inadequacies of the communication system.

It is ironic that the delay in communicating the  release of a few tens of kiloBq  into the sea  was highlighted by the media which went to town.The effort was to dramatize the event. No body  cared to say that the acticvty released in absolute terms was  a fraction of the  natural activity in a cubic metre of soil any where in the planet! (I do not support any unplanned release from a nuclear faciliy).

I found that in 2004  another earthquake in the same region caused a similar release from a spent fuel pool at the same power station. 

Those in nuclear industry will have to get ready to respond to many questions. Most of them may be trivial to the specialist but certainly not to the public. I have this thursday published an article on "Deadly plutonium"

in the Hindu, a widely read daily . Now I have to write shortly on Earthquakes!

The URL of my article on plutonium is 
http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/seta/2007/07/19/stories/2007071950011500.htm

Regards
K.S. Parthasarathy

----- Original Message ----
From: Sandy Perle <sandyfl at cox.net>
To: John R Johnson <idias at interchange.ubc.ca>; radsafe-bounces at radlab.nl; LNMolino at aol.com; radsafe at radlab.nl
Sent: Saturday, 21 July, 2007 6:02:19 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] Japan quake not seen slowingU.S.nuclear revi.val

I agree with John. The earthquake had significant coverage in both written as well as TV/Cable/Internet form.

Be sure that the anti-nuclear plant forces will attempt to focus on the earthquake as reason not to build other plants.

Sandy Perle
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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