tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10911751.post1080395749484733412..comments2024-03-07T02:00:01.582-05:00Comments on NEI Nuclear Notes: Japan Discusses Policy To Shutdown 40-Year-Old ReactorsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10911751.post-479328869990589562012-01-10T09:43:23.902-05:002012-01-10T09:43:23.902-05:00Shreejana,
Setting aside the issue of whether the...Shreejana,<br /><br />Setting aside the issue of whether the model is accurate, take a look at what it shows:<br /><br />I looked at the projections for April 1st, in Chicago IL, which looks pretty close to where the highest intensity of Np/Pu is predicted in this model.<br /><br />It shows 1.2*10^-7 becquerels per cubic meter of Pu-239. Not an easy thing to understand for the layperson, so let me convert it to mass:<br /><br />5.2*10^17 grams per cubic meter. A block of air one meter to a side was therefore projected to contain:<br />0.000000000000000052 grams of Pu-239.<br /><br />Said another way, the model predicted one single atom of plutonium for every 7-8 cubic centimeters of air. Let's say you take a breath and breathe in a half liter of air (avg according to wikipedia), which is 500 cubic centimeters. You'd breathe in about 66 atoms of plutonium.<br /><br />Let's say you didn't exhale those atoms right back out (in reality you probably would--at least most of them). Those 66 atoms of plutonium would have an activity of 6*10^-11 becquerels (or disintegrations per seconds). Take the inverse of these and you find that there would be 16 billion seconds between each disintegration. (A disintegration meaning one of those Pu-239 atoms decays and emits its alpha particle into your lungs).<br /><br />In other words, those 66 atoms from that breath would need to reside in your lungs for 527 years before emitting a single alpha particle! This is because the half life of plutonium-239 is 24110 years, meaning it would take 24110 years for those 66 atoms to decay into 33 atoms, releasing 33 alpha particles.<br /><br />Now this is a random/statistical thing, so it's certainly possible that one of those 66 atoms would hit you with an alpha particle before you die of natural causes and your body completely decomposes, but odds are they won't.<br /><br />Is this really "very disturbing"? I think there are more important things to be concerned about.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10911751.post-54482947239353498262012-01-09T21:00:02.650-05:002012-01-09T21:00:02.650-05:00Yet government is not willing to shut all the nucl...Yet government is not willing to shut all the nuclear plants down. They are only interested in shutting down those plants running over 40 years. This initiative will hardly Japan to get rid off further disasters.<br /><br />I recently discovered the following dispersion model, which someone had linked to Berkeley’s discussion page. It uses TEPCO emission data to model possible dispersion patterns for Neptunium and Plutonium <br /><br />http://www.datapoke.org/blog/89/study-modeling-fukushima-npp-p-239-and-np-239-atmospheric-dispersion/<br /><br />http://datapoke.org/partmom/a=114<br /><br />If this model is accurate, it is very disturbing. Where are all of the so-called experts who claimed these elements were too heavy to travel far from the plant site?Test Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16869870792008244442noreply@blogger.com