Nuclear NÃO, obrigado!

World War II
The United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima (mushroom cloud on the left) and Nagasaki (right) in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945.

Nuclear power plant accidents
1. Kyshtym on September 29, 1957
2. Three Mile Island on March 28, 1979
3. Chernobyl on April 26, 1986
4. Fukushima Daiichi on March 11, 2011

NUCLEAR NO THANKS

Effects of radiation

A millisievert is a unit that measures the biological risk of exposure to radiation.
Per year, a man absorbs between 110 to 150 millisieverts radiation from various sources. Acute radiation sickness begins at 1,000 millisieverts.

Nuclear radiation is part of our lives. Sunlight is a natural radioactive source, the sand on the beach, when television is on. Living in a masonry home (0.07 mSv), chest X-ray (0.1 mSv), cosmic radiation at sea level (0.26 mSv); whole-body scan (10 mSv), between reactors at Fukushima Daiichi (400 mSv), firefigthers at Chernobyl in 1986 (16,000 mSv).

In a nuclear explosion or some accidents with radioactive sources, people get exposed to radiation throughout the body, but the doses may be different in each tissue. Each body tissue reacts in a certain way.

The somatic effects are classified into immediate and delayed based on a limit, adopted by convention of 60 days. The most important of the immediate effects of radiation after whole body exposure to relatively high doses is the Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS). The delayed effect is of greater relevance to malignancy by radiotherapy, which only appears many years after irradiation.

The damages that radiation can cause in man are:
- Absorption from 0 to 25 mSv - nothing happens.
- Absorption from 25 to 50 mSv - reduction of white blood cells.
- Absorption 100 to 200 mSv – nausea, intense reduction of white blood cells.
- Absorption of 500 mSv - 50% probability of death in 30 days.
- Prevention of cell division.
- Damage to cell division.
- Changes in the genetic structure of reproductive cells.
- Total destruction of the cell.

SCREENING NUCLEAR CONTAMINATION

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A hydrogen explosion rocked the earthquake-stricken nuclear plant in Japan where authorities have been working desperately to avert a meltdown, compounding a nuclear catastrophe caused by Friday's massive quake and tsunami.
Business.com



Third blast rocks Japanese nuclear plant
Radiation levels increase as technicians struggle to prevent meltdown
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:35am
Radiation at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima has reached harmful levels, the Japanese government says, after a third blast damaged the containment system of the second reactor. A fire that broke out at the plant’s fourth reactor also caused more radioactive leaks. Cooling seawater has been pumped into the plants first and third reactor, stabilizing them for the time being. Radiation levels were higher than normal in Tokyo, which lies about 250km away from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, although officials say there are no immediate health dangers for residents in the capital. The 140,000 residents living within the 30km exclusion zone who have not already been evacuated are advised not to leave their homes. The latest death toll from the earthquake and tsunami sits at 2,400 but is estimated that at least 10,000 people have been killed, and 500,000 people are homeless.
BBC News

Coastal location leaves power stations exposed

The Sunday Times, March13, 2011
by Charles Clover

Japan was probably the nation best prepared for one of the worst natural events. Or was it?
The combination of circumstances which knocked even the standby generators out of action at the Fukushima nuclear reactors, leading to an explosion and the danger of a meltdown, have reminded us of the possibility of a new, as yet unplayed-out environmental catastrophe triggered by a natural event.
Until now this has been the stuff of imagination and disaster movies. Ironically, it is the very sophistication of the Japanese economy, with its 50 nuclear power plants, which made it vulnerable to a consequential event of this kind.
The explosion at Fukushima will provoke much thought around the world now that building nuclear power stations is back in fashion. Questions will be asked about the practice of siting such power stations on coasts.
Did anyone explore the possibility that a tsunami would make it uniquely difficult to prevent the biggest problem with the present generation of nuclear reactors - that if cooling systems pack up, hot liquids can vaporise and cause a release of radioactive materials?

History of leaks, blasts and secrecy

The history of civil nuclear energy has been dogged by explosions, radiation leaks and the occasional cover-up.
The events at Chernobyl, Windscale and Three Mile Island provide reminders of the devastating effects of nuclear accidents.
The site of the world´s worst nuclear disaster was the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
In April 1986, one of four reactors overheated and caused a huge explosion, spreading radioactive waste across Europe. The World Health Organisation said that although only two workers died in the initial explosion, it estimated in 2006 that about 9,000 deaths had been directly linked to the radioactivity.
Britain's worst nuclear accident ocurred in 1957 when a fire broke out at the Windscale (now Sellafield) reactor in Cumbria. The fire was put out before it sparkled an explosion, but about 200 people in Britain developed cancers, half of which proved fatal.
In 1979 the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania overheated when a small valve designed to relieve pressure in the reactor malfunctioned. The core temperature of the plant soared and workers narrowly saved it from meltdown.
Until last week's earthquake, Japan had had four serious radiation leaks or explosions at its nuclear power stations since 1981.
In 1999 operators who were not trained in handling uranium overloaded the tank ata a reactor outside Tokyo. The resulting explosion killed two workers and put 100 others - who were exposed to radiation - in hospital.
The Sunday Times, March 13, 2011

Tragedy in Japan

Earthquake and tsunami in Japan
Nuclear power plant at risk of radioactive leak