Arbitary units:

100 "counts per minute" or CPM equals 1 microseivert

1000 microseiverts = 1 millsievert (the highest it has gotten around the reactors is 400 millisieverts, that was 3 days ago I believe)

1000 millisieverts = 1 sievert (thankfully haven't seen this number anywhere yet)

I only mentioned the CPMs, which are the smallest unit in my list because one of the online geiger counters I am watching (I am watching several, better than Big Love I can tell you) is using CPMs to measure. Please check it out.

geiger counter

If you look below, that is the CPMs measured by a geiger counter in Tokyo before all this started, above is the current CPM reading. At this point and time it is a 2 CPM difference. 2. The highest I saw it get was for an hour or so about 2-3 days ago, when it was spiking close to 40 CPMs.

Whoa, just hold on a second there! That's just crazy talk!!





hehe just kidding. Saw that and that's what immediately came to mind. Glad to hear that you all are doing ok.

A guy I know who works at a nuclear plant in Kansas said this on FB:
Nuclear power, it is the cleanest, most efficient power source we are currently running. I am begging people to please learn about it before judging it....Don't let the ignorant media decide for you.

A 41 year old reactor gets hit by a 9 magnitude earthquake, then slammed with a 20 ft. wall of sea water, followed by an explosion due to the buildup of hydrogen gas that blows off the roof of the building, and the partially melted core is intact and contained. And you are telling me nuclear power isn't safe?

You'll have to forgive us.. all we had prior to this was Charlie Sheen.

John, I have to agree with your friend. The US will (typically) overreact to this. They're already slamming the doors on an addition to our plant down in Bay City. (We lived there three years, by way of disclaimer.)

I swear, even I weren't watching the Japanese people do their very best to cope with this ~ and doing so without any apparent hysteria ~ I'd have to say, congratulations, America. You've seen a problem and stampeded to the other side of the mountain, found a convenient cliff and made the leap, declaring on your way down that all is well.


lan, really really glad to hear from you again. I've been forwarding your posts to LIttle Sister, as we know that your take on the situation is probably just a few whiskers finer than what we're getting fed by our mass "go for the ratings" media over here.

LoveLea

Info and updates are appreciated. Thanks.
May not be as serious as the staccato fear mongering we hear, but naturally, we are all concerned.
Please stay safe.

It's just ignorance and inexperience. I found myself a bit concerned.. even on the East Coast. Not really remembering 3 Mile Island or even Chernobyl very well .. I begin wondering what, if any, precautions do I need to take to safeguard my wife and child?
It's a natural thing... and it's fed by the media.

I do have to say... modern nuclear plants have more safeguards and backups than plants from decades ago. It should be an international law that all older plants should be brought up to those same levels of precaution.

If backup jennies are close to sea levels.. they should be mounted higher or put in water-proof bunkers or whatever...
But for those jennies to be rendered useless because of water... tsunami or not.. well, that should be a lesson to us all.

Now, of course, I've just joined the pantheons of Nukleer armchair quarterbacks...

The US isn't the only place where people overreact to this. Like I told Ian earlier, many Finnish pharmacies ran out of iodine pills earlier this week. Oh and to top it all up, we have election coming in about a month. Guess how many candidates are already riding on this nuclear thing any way they can?

And there is also one proposed plant for northern Finland so the regional media ran a story on how that would change the nuclear disaster readiness plans. Never mind the map they printed showed a Russian plant not that far away from our borders.

This thing has actually made me think like John's friend he quoted. And I still consider those 180 nuclear specialists working in Fukushima to be the hardest men on this planet.

But hey, a good disaster is a great spectacle.

I do have to say... modern nuclear plants have more safeguards and backups than plants from decades ago. It should be an international law that all older plants should be brought up to those same levels of precaution.

Yes.

But hey, a good disaster is a great spectacle.

define great. ): ( :

Great as in exciting and immersive.

If everyone in the world is watching.. then that, my friend, is definitely a spectacle.