Tokyo Passengers Trigger U.S. Airport Detectors, N.Y. Post Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-0...post-says.html

Radiation detectors at Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare airports were triggered when passengers from flights that started in Tokyo passed through customs, the New York Post reported.

Tests at Dallas-Fort Worth indicated low radiation levels in travelers’ luggage and in the aircraft’s cabin filtration system; no passengers were quarantined, the newspaper said.

Details of the incident at O’Hare weren’t immediately clear, the Post said.

And it sounds like they've got a power feed to one of the reactors now.

Well, no, not really.

So called sun worshippers (those who spent too much of their lives tanning themselves) have heightened risk for various cancers, including melanoma. People living in more sunny climates, or at higher altitudes, or in jobs that keep them outside in the sun, are at higher risk for such skin cancers.

We know that.

So we're always dealing with some small amounts of radiation. To what degree increased amounts of radiation, and over what period of time, increase such risks is what this side discussion is about.

I get your point that whether the baseline is zero or some number higher than zero might not be tremendously significant, but the question is how much MORE radiation than the everyday, normal radiation we're all exposed to is in the atmosphere around the plant, or in Tokyo, etc.

Obama is visiting the Japanese Embassy in Washington. Will make a speech about the situation in the Rose Garden in a bit.

China and South Korea are sending hundreds of thousands of gallons of various fuels to Japan to help relief efforts.

American military is sending a nine member team of NBC exposure experts to Japan to help. SecDef Gates has offered $35MM for humanitarian aid.

Now there's some irony...

Does this mean that we're not DOOMED? :hmmm:

Latest I've seen is Japan telling the IAEA that they have strung power cables to Reactor 2. Not sure if they're powered up yet.

If they've got power established and the pumps are still operable, yes, pretty much. At least it won't get any worse.

I suspect there are not-a-few old timers in those countries saying "**** 'em".

Whatever bitterness some people here have over Pearl Harbor, people in those two countries have times eleventy billion.

(and this isn't really directed at Donger, who knows this, but at anyone else reading this thread who isn't pretty familiar with the events of WWII).

Well that's good. I don't have to deal with this kind of excitement and my coal fire plants or my refineries. Don't get me wrong, there can be some "interesting developments," but I don't have any nukes around here.

Bwana, if montana seceded from the union and kept the nukes, we would be the third largest nuclear power in the world. At least I heard that once.

Posted on Reuters ~15 minutes ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/...72A0SS20110317

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iReport —
I am roughly sixty to seventy kilometers due west from the nuclear plants that the Japanese authorities are struggling so hard to control. I witnessed two military helicopters fly over. Now, I am watching those same helicopters dropping water and attempting to cool those plants on the in-dash television of my car. This is as close as I am able to get to the plant. The video shows the needle of my Bicron PGM slamming the right side of the meter. I was taught in specialized training for this trip that, if this happened, I was to flee the area.

Sorry for any spelling typos or grammar mistakes. It's hard to edit while fleeing and, simultaneously, using CNN APP.

Perhaps, but I don't have any I directly deal with. Most of that is the US Air Force. The nastiest stuff I deal with, is HF acid and Sulfur Dioxide.

Kind of unhelpful without knowing which setting it's on.