[ RadSafe ] How many curies were involved in Hiroshima
ROY HERREN
royherren2005 at yahoo.com
Tue Jun 21 00:36:43 CDT 2011
Thanks for sharing the story about the Boston Molasses Disaster. Roy Herren
________________________________
From: "Brennan, Mike (DOH)" <Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
<radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Sent: Mon, June 20, 2011 2:01:18 PM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] How many curies were involved in Hiroshima
Here are some from Wikipedia. I am not saying these are the biggest, as they
only cover a brief slice of time, are mostly Northern Hemisphere, and are mostly
catastrophic events, as opposed to long term health crushers like Black Lung
Disease (so if you are going to say, "but Fukushima potentially will have long
term effects," I suspect I could come up with 10 of those without much problem,
too.)
December 3, 1984: The Bhopal disaster. Estimates of its death toll range from
4,000 to 20,000. The disaster caused the region's human and animal populations
severe health problems to the present.
April 16, 1947: Texas City Disaster, Texas. A minimum of 578 people lost their
lives and another 3,500 were injured as the blast shattered windows from as far
away as 25 mi (40 km). Large steel pieces were thrown more than a mile from the
dock. The origin of the explosion was fire in the cargo on board the ship.
Detonation of 3,200 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer aboard the Grandcamp led
to further explosions and fires.
1932-1968: The Minamata disaster was caused by the dumping of mercury compounds
in Minamata Bay, Japan. The Chisso Corporation, a fertilizer and later
petrochemical company, was found responsible for polluting the bay for 37 years.
It is estimated that over 3,000 people suffered various deformities, severe
mercury poisoning symptoms or death from what became known as Minamata disease.
August, 1975 The Banqiao Dam flooded in the Henan Province of China due to
extraordinarily heavy rains, killing over 26,000
April 26, 1986: Chernobyl disaster. At the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in
Prypiat, Ukraine a test on reactor number four goes out of control, resulting in
a nuclear meltdown. The ensuing steam explosion and fire killed up to 50 people
with estimates that there may be between 4,000 and several hundred thousand
additional cancer deaths over time. Fallout could be detected as far away as
Canada. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, covering portions of Belarus and Ukraine
surrounding Prypiat, remains poisoned and mostly uninhabited. Prypiat itself was
totally evacuated and remains as a ghost town.
January 15, 1919: The Boston Molasses Disaster. A large molasses tank burst and
a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h),
killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and residents
claim that on hot summer days the area still smells of molasses.
March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. This was a
major industrial disaster in the U.S., causing the death of more than one
hundred garment workers who either died in the fire or jumped to their deaths.
March 10, 1906: Courrières mine disaster in Courrières, France. 1,099 workers
died, including children, in the worst mine accident ever in Europe.
October 21, 1966: Aberfan disaster was a catastrophic collapse of a colliery
spoil-tip that occurred in the Welsh village of Aberfan, killing 116 children
and 28 adults.
September 21, 2001: Toulouse, France. An explosion at the AZF fertilizer factory
killed 29 and injured 2,500. Extensive structural damage to nearby
neighbourhoods.
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Busby, Chris
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 1:39 PM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] How many curies were involved in Hiroshima
What industrial catastrophes are bigger than Fukushima?
I cant think of one. But maybe there is one. Certainly not 9.
I mean Industrial right. Not earthquakes and stuff like that.
If we call the atmospheric tests an industrial catastrophe then that one
certainly.
Also the use of uranium weapons in GW2.
But thats probably not as bad in terms of health effects as Fukushima will be.
You wait.
Chris Busby
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu on behalf of Brennan, Mike (DOH)
Sent: Mon 20/06/2011 21:35
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] How many curies were involved in Hiroshima
While I don't choose to guess at the amount of activity released at either
Chernobyl or Fukushima beyond "a whole hell of a lot", I don't think I agree
that Fukushima has or will result in "higher collective exposure". Firstly,
there was some hours between the end of criticality and the beginning of release
at Fukushima. This means that many of the isotopes with the shortest half-lives
had enough time to decay away before release began, unlike Chernobyl. Second,
at Fukushima the first portion of the release, which is potentially the hottest,
was blown out to sea, as opposed to at Chernobyl, where there was inhabited land
in every direction (some, obviously, more densely inhabited than others).
Third, a significant portion of the released activity is in water, going to the
ocean, where the impact on human health will be limited.
I am not for a moment saying that Fukushima isn't a disaster. I am not even
saying that it is unreasonable to compare it to Chernobyl. Heck, I am not even
saying that something can't happen and make Fukushima worse than it is.
However, I don't believe that it is useful to engage in hyperbole.
This morning a concerned citizen sent me an article from Al Jezeera in which an
activist claimed, "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the
history of mankind". It certainly is not, and probably isn't in the top ten.
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Busby, Chris
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 11:15 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List; The
International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] How many curies were involved in Hiroshima
My estimate is
Chernobyl
about 10^19 Bq
Fukushima about 10^19Bq but more local so density greater and higher collective
exposure due to Tokyo Hiroshima more difficult, maybe 10^14 including the
Uranium But I agree, not easily comparable with Hiroshima since that involved
high level prompt gamma and neutrons Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu on behalf of Brennan, Mike
(DOH)
Sent: Mon 20/06/2011 17:41
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] How many curies were involved in Hiroshima
I am not sure if the question of how much radioactivity was released at
Hiroshima is a meaningful question, at least when trying to put it in
perspective with Chernobyl and Fukushima.
There are several reasons for this. The first is that the explosion at
Hiroshima produced blast and heat that killed people (though not
everyone) out to a range past where the radiation dose would cause acute
problems. At Chernobyl the blast killed a few people (I am not sure how many),
and at Fukushima no one was killed by blast.
Second, at Hiroshima much of the radiation was produced by fission, so "curies"
isn't an appropriate unit, in much the same way it isn't for machine produced
radiation. There was a substantial amount of radioactive material produced, and
there was some exposure to people from the fallout, but that wasn't the main
source of dose. At Chernobyl a reactor core that was (for a brief time) at more
than 100% power was blasted into the air, then roasted in a graphite fire for
days. At Fukushima there was a release into the air some hours after
criticality ceased, and a large amount of the radioactive material has been
trapped in water that either went into the ocean or is still on site.
Third, the isotope mix of what was released is very different between the
three. This come into play in that the release of, say, 1,000 Ci of
I-131 has different consequences than the release of 1,000 Ci of I-129.
Weapons tend to have a higher percentage of very short half life isotopes,
reactor fuel that has been use a while has a higher percentage of longer
half-life isotopes. Also, with reactors the amount of time between the end of
criticality and the release will impact both the amount of activity and the
isotope mix.
I bring all this up because it is a natural tendency to ask questions like this,
then equate "more" with "worse". In this case, I don't think that the
intentional attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can be
meaningfully compared to Chernobyl and Fukushima.
-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Theo Richel
Sent: Saturday, June 18, 2011 11:17 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) MailingList; The
International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: [ RadSafe ] How many curies were involved in Hiroshima
Could anyone please give me some facts on how much radioactivity
(curies) was released in: Fukushima, Hisoshima, Chernobyl
Much appreciated
Theo Richel
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