I thought you might like to see this video down near the bottom. Read this stuff first and then check it out.
On April 3, 2011, the video shows Japanese video journalist Jimbo Tetsuo (surname first) in his car going through the 20 kilometer evacuation zone towards the Fukushima Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear reactor facility in Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture), Japan.
As you know, this particular nuclear facility was hard hit after the March 11, 2011 9.0 Magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that knocked out power to the cooling generators surrounding the hot nuclear power rods. There were explosions and a lot of radiation emitted from the facility.
This video shows him in his car with a geiger counter and a device to count the amount of radiation in sievert's. I've re-calculated the data below into millisieverts (mSV), which I am more comfortable with.
I have here the video he shot via YOUTUBE. In the video you'll see some of the destruction and an amazing amount of animal life that seems to be unaffected by the radiation, despite a heavy dosage of 0.112 mSv/hour (112 μSv/hour) that is apparently above the legal limit, but is not expected to pose a health risk for short term exposure.
The 0.112 mSv/hour reached by the reporter would only be dangerous after 446 hoursor 18.6 days, which would then be equal to the maximum yearly exposure for radiation workers established by the U.S. NRC (United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission) of 500 mSv (or 50,000 μSv.)
At least I hope I got the math correct: 0.010 mSv, = 10 µSv. I converted from µSv to mSv, as the video was showing data in μSv/hour.
But what about anyone or thing thing still left there... like the cows or dogs in the video... well, radioactivity does decay.By the 200th day, as long as there is no further release of radiation into the air, the dose rate will be quite insignificant.
Somewhere wondering what happened to the bulldog,
Andrew Joseph
On April 3, 2011, the video shows Japanese video journalist Jimbo Tetsuo (surname first) in his car going through the 20 kilometer evacuation zone towards the Fukushima Dai-ichi (Big One) nuclear reactor facility in Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture), Japan.
As you know, this particular nuclear facility was hard hit after the March 11, 2011 9.0 Magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that knocked out power to the cooling generators surrounding the hot nuclear power rods. There were explosions and a lot of radiation emitted from the facility.
This video shows him in his car with a geiger counter and a device to count the amount of radiation in sievert's. I've re-calculated the data below into millisieverts (mSV), which I am more comfortable with.
What the heck is a millisievert?
The millisievert (mSv) is a measure of the absorption of radiation by the human body.
The average person is exposed to 2.4 mSv a year througha variety of sources like x-rays, cosmic rays, radon, granite, tobacco- in fact, if you lived in a high elevation place, you are receivingmore millisieverts of radiation than those at sea-level - because ofthe thinner atmosphere which is a blocker.
There is a rumour that the U.S. Capitol Building made up of a stonecontaining uranium emits more than enough radiation to shut down anuclear power plant. I said rumour now.
Other examples of exposure include:
- Chest x-ray: .04 mSv single dose;
- Cosmic rays: .24 mSv per year;
- Smoking 1.5 packs a day: 13 mSv per year;
- Flight crew working the New York-Tokyo route: 9 mSv per year;
- Living near Chernobyl when it melted down in 1986: 450 mSv cumulative over several days.
There is a 50 percent chance of death within a month if you are exposedto a single dose of 5,000 mSv. Obviously, you double your percentage ifyou double the exposure: near-certain death within a month after asingle dose 10,000 mSv of radiation.
I have here the video he shot via YOUTUBE. In the video you'll see some of the destruction and an amazing amount of animal life that seems to be unaffected by the radiation, despite a heavy dosage of 0.112 mSv/hour (112 μSv/hour) that is apparently above the legal limit, but is not expected to pose a health risk for short term exposure.
The 0.112 mSv/hour reached by the reporter would only be dangerous after 446 hoursor 18.6 days, which would then be equal to the maximum yearly exposure for radiation workers established by the U.S. NRC (United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission) of 500 mSv (or 50,000 μSv.)
At least I hope I got the math correct: 0.010 mSv, = 10 µSv. I converted from µSv to mSv, as the video was showing data in μSv/hour.
But what about anyone or thing thing still left there... like the cows or dogs in the video... well, radioactivity does decay.By the 200th day, as long as there is no further release of radiation into the air, the dose rate will be quite insignificant.
Somewhere wondering what happened to the bulldog,
Andrew Joseph
