[ RadSafe ] Quest for the good report about Japan crisis. [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Tue Mar 15 17:30:29 CDT 2011

Neill,

I'm finding the response quite slow, with lots of 'No response from server' messages, a lot of traffic perhaps?
Coverage is not total, some prefectures don't appear to have monitors (mostly inland, presumably with no nuclear facilities)
The Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures are showing as 'Under Survey', power and/or communications out?
Ibaraki prefecture monitors are all showing elevated levels 1000 - 2000 nGy/h (yes that's nanoGray), normal levels 50 - 100 nGy/h.
On the mobile site http://www.bousai.ne.jp/mob/index2.php?lang=en you can drill down to individual detectors and get a plot of the levels over the previous 24 hours.  Scale seems to be set at 0 - 200 nGy/h however so the Ibaraki monitors are all off-scale.  Some of the others further south that I looked at yesterday showed a number of 'pulses'

Peter Thomas
ARPANSA

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Neill Stanford, CHP
Sent: Wednesday, 16 March 2011 9:16 AM
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Quest for the good report about Japan crisis.

This site, provided by George last week, is pretty reliable lately. Showing exposure rates around Japan. Shows the increase to the south of the plant.

http://www.bousai.ne.jp/eng/

Neill Stanford, CHP
Stanford Dosimetry, LLC
stanford at stanforddosimetry.com

On Mar 15, 2011, at 9:29 AM, Howard wrote:

> Oui, Stephane,
> And where is reported the 9700 people from that village who were just found to have been saved by heeding 1/2 hour tsunami warning by going to higher ground?
> Where is reporting that survivors of the bombs had less cancer and better longevity?
> Where is reporting of the successful shutdown of reactors with a 9.0 quake -
>    only to be overcome by unprecedented tsunami?
> Much unreported good news here!
> Howard Long
>
> On Mar 15, 2011, at 6:26 AM, "Jean-Francois, Stephane" <stephane_jeanfrancois at merck.com> wrote:
>
>> I think we are debating in vain and we all know it. You will never have a balanced report on a crisis as a balanced report is a subjective beast. For radsafers here, a balance report would evacuate emotions and stick to the facts with their frame of reference or even better, the actual situtaion is not that bad, considering the trigger etc, etc. Almost no HP is impressed by a nuclear power plant or nuclear power. But can we say the same about Joe and Jane Public even before this inceident ?  They are being fed with all kind of imagery, like this one in a local Montreal news paper http://www.montrealmirror.com/wp/2011/03/10/table-of-contents-march-10-2011-%e2%80%93-march-16-2011-vol-26-no-38/) reagding the vapor generator that are supposed to go from Canada to Sweeden by boat. Much ado about nothing would you say ?  Not for Joe and Jane Public.
>>
>> You know that it is very difficult to persuade a person that is scared of something she of he don't understand or care to understand. As RSOs we know that a very difficult challenge is to explain to a pregnant woman the risks of working with radioisotopes or X-rays, even if she don't have a remote chance to exceed 1 mSv as a CEDE!!! Emotions is human and even on this list, I have seen my share of emotion from professionnals.
>>
>> I think the trick to ensure that we don't fall only to our emotions is to put things into perspective.
>>
>> - An earthquake that hits 9 on the Richter's scale AND a major Tsunami is a serious test of a nuclear power plant.
>> - In 2 minutes, 10 000 persons of a village of 17 000 are now reported missing, presumed death.
>> - Tokyo is still using nuclear electricity as we speak.
>> - We see ''live on TV'' a nuclear power plant exploding.
>> - Social networks and email are reporting anything, from anecdotal opinions to valuable scientific data.
>>
>> It is not the time to debate about the good report or to minimize the events, our job is to explain calmly the difference between contamination and exposure (internal and external risk), the emergency procedures of a nuclear power plant, the difference between Tchernobyl and the current event and the effect of doses in layperson terms.
>>
>> All the rest is vain, I am sorry to say.
>>
>>
>> _____________________________________________________________________________
>> Stéphane Jean-François, Eng., M. Env., CHP. | Manager, Environment and Health Physics
>> Safety and Environment | Global Compliance
>> Merck  Canada Inc. | 16711 TransCanada Hwy. | Kirkland, QC, Canada H9H 3L1
>> Office: #4-2-448 | P: 514-428-8695 | f:  514-428-8670 |
>> stephane_jeanfrancois at merck.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Message d'origine-----
>> De : radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] De la part de ReuvenGmail
>> Envoyé : 15 mars 2011 02:32
>> À : radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
>> Objet : Re: [ RadSafe ] RadSafe Digest, Vol 569, Issue 1
>>
>> What kind of credential would satisfy you, Roger?
>> Why wouldn't you provide ABC, and us too, with your approved list of
>> experts?
>>
>> What expertise is required to confidently state that a colosal disaster
>> fefell us all (not a "Issue" as many here are used to use...).
>>
>> Reuven
>>
>> =================================================================
>>
>> Message: 7
>> Date: Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:48:52 -0700
>> From: "Roger Helbig" <rhelbig at sfo.com>
>> Subject: [ RadSafe ] Tell ABC News to get some real experts
>> To: "'The International Radiation Protection \(Health Physics\)
>> Mailing List'" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
>> Cc: ire-l <ire-l at lists.missouri.edu>
>> Message-ID: <sig.7055c63ada.019c01cbe2aa$c24e7330$46eb5990$@com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>>
>> ABC News again had Joseph Cirincione President of the Ploughshares Fund as
>> their expert of choice on tonight's news - suggest you all write your local
>> ABC news station and get the network to get a genuine expert instead of an
>> activist with no scientific credentials
>>
>>
>>
>> Roger
>>
>>
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