[ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have preventedauthorities fromcollecting as many as 1, 000 bodies

Thu Apr 7 08:00:40 CDT 2011

UNRESTRICTED | ILLIMITÉ

Hi John,

There is a web site specifically for Canadian science journalists -- too bad more of them aren't aware of it: there is a couple of recent posts about radiation basics and nuclear power, authored by people some of whose names you may recognise...

http://www.sciencemediacentre.ca/

Jaro
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of John R Johnson
Sent: April 6, 2011 7:04 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have preventedauthorities fromcollecting as many as 1, 000 bodies

Radsafer

I agree with Cindy. Our daughter, who works for CBC, has been asking me to 
explain it "all" to her. I have found this very difficult. She found that 
http://xkcd.com/radiation  was very useful.

John
***************
John R Johnson, PhD
CEO, IDIAS, Inc.
4535 West 9th Ave
Vancouver, B. C.
V6R 2E2, Canada
idias at interchange.ubc.ca

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <radbloom at comcast.net>
To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List" 
<radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2011 3:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have prevented authorities 
fromcollecting as many as 1, 000 bodies

>
>
> Franz et al,
>
>
>
> I have to wonder if this is a case of folks not knowing the differences 
> among the terms. Having reviewed many, many documents, I've found that 
> even the professionals occasionally misuse the terms radiation, 
> radioactivity and contamination. And in this case where radiation is what 
> is being measured, the person interpreting the measurement then has to 
> determine what that measurement of radiation means. Does it mean the body 
> is covered with radioactive contamination? Does it mean that there is 
> radioactivity that has been taken into the bodies (I doubt that this would 
> show up in field measurements and it is likely that intakes were very 
> small or nonexistent until days after the initial tsunami/earthquake)? I 
> personally doubt that these bodies would have been activated (made 
> radioactive by interaction with certain types and energies of radiation).
>
>
>
> I think this forum is a great place to jump in and remind folks (including 
> ourselves) to be careful with our words, so we can improve our 
> communication. I also think that the translations between Japanese and 
> English might occasionally add to the confusion.
>
>
>
> I hope I've been careful enough with my words, because I mean this only to 
> be constructive.
>
>
>
> Thank you for encouraging my thoughts. I'm hoping you've given me the 
> incentive to contact those who are providing reports that are not clear 
> regarding these terms.
>
>
>
> What a horrible tragedy this is. My heart goes out to these families.
>
>
>
> Cindy Bloom
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Franz Schönhofer" <franz.schoenhofer at chello.at>
> To: "The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList" 
> <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2011 3:37:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have prevented authorities from 
> collecting as many as 1, 000 bodies
>
> RADSAFErs,
>
> The situation in Fukushima is bad, but much worse in my opinion is the two
> faced (according to my dictionary) attitude, which does not clearly
> distinguish between the catastroph caused by the earthquake and the 
> Tsunami
> together and on the other hand of the nuclear disaster.
>
> In the international mass media the different causes are "deliberately?"
> mixed together. This seems to be the case in this press message. Bodies
> exposed to "high levels of radiation" would not be radioactive.
>
> I refrain to comment more on that message, because it is to disgusting and 
> a
> lack of reverence for the dead. Shame on those "journalists"!
>
> Franz
>
> Franz Schoenhofer, PhD
> MinRat i.R.
> Habicherg. 31/7
> A-1160 Wien/Vienna
> AUSTRIA
>
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht----- 
> Von: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] Im Auftrag von Gaglierd, Tony
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 06. April 2011 21:02
> An: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
> Betreff: [ RadSafe ] Radiation fears have prevented authorities from
> collecting as many as 1, 000 bodies
>
> Radiation fears have prevented authorities from collecting as many as 
> 1,000
> bodies of victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami from within the
> 20-km-radius evacuation zone around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant
>
> Bodies had been "exposed to high levels of radiation after death." 
> Elevated
> levels of radiation were found on a body in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture,
> about 5 km from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
>
> Does anyone know or have a reference that would give some values to the
> ambient radiation levels in the No Go Zone? How about contamination 
> levels?
>
> "Elevated levels of radiation were found on a body..." I assume that was
> contamination? Not activity? How much contamination? What isotopes I-131,
> Cs-137?
>
> Based on risk benefit, and not being disrespectful of the dead, is the 
> risk
> acceptable to retrieve these bodies and process them for proper burial?
>
> With DHH and CDC,s sudden interest in Nuclear detonation, and having been 
> in
> the past and presently involved in Nuclear Preparedness Planning, I wonder
> how we would plan for and deal with this issue post attack or more
> realistically post sever power plant incident?
>
> Considering what I've seen coming from these folks it's a veiled copy of 
> the
> old CD RDO program. Radiation is Radiation, Contamination is 
> contamination,
> Fallout is Fallout.
>
> P.S. Let's get on with putting the spent fuel in Yucca Mountain, and in 
> the
> future reprocess it. Carter was a Nuclear Engineer, what's Obama's Excuse?
>
>
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