E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Kyle Drubek
Odaka, Japan, resembles a ghost town at dusk.
ODAKA, Japan -- The main street is deserted and quiet except for the eerie echoes of music being played somewhere in the distance. Pieces of shattered glass lie scattered along sidewalks outside collapsed buildings, some with their second-story roofs smashed flat on the pavement. Yards and driveways are overgrown with weeds, and schools and playgrounds are silent and forlorn.
Welcome to Odaka, a Japanese town of about 13,000 residents before a triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that began on March 11, 2011, turned the once-charming coastal village into a ghost town.
While many other Japanese towns and cities suffered the first two calamities, Odaka, which is in the southern district of the larger city Minami Soma, is unusual because of its proximity to the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant -- just 6 miles from the southeastern edge of town. The plant, which suffered meltdowns in three of its four nuclear reactors and breaches of its containment walls after the quake, emitted a plume of radioactive smoke that at times drifted over – and through – Odaka’s streets over several months.
As a result, the town was frozen in time for more than a year after the disaster, abandoned in the so-called “exclusion zone” established by Japanese authorities around the Fukushima plant. Aside from a hurried search for bodies and a few perfunctory cleanup efforts, it remained untouched until April 16, when authorities narrowed the exclusion zone from 20 kilometers to 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to the north of the plant and allowed residents to return to begin picking through the moldy, shattered and irradiated pieces of their lives.
As the town slowly begins stirring, it offers a preview of the challenges and travails that await other communities even closer to the plant – if and when they are reopened.
Kyle Drubek
Hotel owner Tomoko Kobayashi is slowly emptying her former business and residence of keepsakes. In the meantime she has her hands full chasing out stray cats and cleaning up after an uninvited boarder left empty bottles of liquor scattered in an unkempt room.
Among the first wave of returnees was Tomoko Kobayashi, the owner of a small hotel, who has begun cleaning up her business despite the fact that no customers are likely to be ringing the bell at the front desk anytime soon.
Kobayashi, a petite and energetic woman in her 60s, is a third-generation hotelier who took over the family business 10 years ago and had expected it to provide a steady income after her husband’s retirement later this year. But now, between drives of 40 miles each day to and from the couple’s cramped temporary housing unit in Haramachi, she worries that Odaka will never recover, as many business owners and young people elect to start new lives elsewhere.
Without such residents, she said, Odaka will become “a town of the elderly and restoration workers.”
Distrust of government
While Minami Soma city has begun decontamination and reconstruction efforts, Odaka remains under the direct authority of the Japanese government. That means residents must wait for evacuation orders issued shortly after the quake to be rescinded before they can return full-time. For now the town is open 24 hours a day, but no one is allowed to sleep there.
Kyle Drubek
On the outskirts of Fukushima city, a farmer spreads zeolite -- intended to absorb and concentrate radioactive cesium -- across his rice field in preparation for planting.
Because many residents were forced to relocate far from Odaka, relatively few return on a regular basis to sort through their belongings and begin cleaning the tsunami mud and debris from homes and businesses. In their absence, police and volunteer patrols circle the streets, politely questioning anyone who stops and sometimes searching vehicles if they suspect theft. The occasional work crew repairs telephone and power lines or fills potholes with gravel.
Farms and fishing – once the lifeblood of Odaka – are not going to contribute to a recovery for a long time. Massive swathes of farmland are contaminated by tsunami salt or radiation and the fishing industry has been obliterated.
But while damage from the quake and tsunami were substantial, radiation remains the main cause of concern both for the government and Odaka residents.
Tatsuo Miyamoto of the Minami Soma City Reconstruction Department said the reopening of Odaka is “a move to start cleanup in preparation for residents (to) return” once electricity, water and sewage service are restored, he said.
AP
View side-by-side the progress that Japan has made since the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011.
In the meantime, he said, the government believes that radiation levels in the town are safe for “extended exposure,” which it defines as up to 20 millisieverts per year – the same level that the International Commission on Radiological Protection has established for nuclear workers. But it is conducting a thorough survey of the town in 30-meter increments to measure levels in individual plots, which will then be classified as “prepared for return,” “problematic for return” or "prohibited for residency for an extended period.” That survey will determine where decontamination work – such as soil removal, high-pressure spraying and other measures – is required and which parts of the city – if any – will remain off-limits.
But decontamination efforts, which were scheduled to start this month and continue at least through the end of 2013, already have been delayed because sites for disposal of Odaka’s radioactive waste have not yet been approved.
That leaves early returnees like Kobayashi in a bind. Bags of radioactive tsunami mud collected by volunteer workers remain piled along the sidewalk outside her hotel in a tidy line. “I keep telling them to take it away, but they won’t,” she said, referring to government workers who drive past each day.
Kyle Drubek
Test rice paddies are scattered throughout Minami Soma. The rice will be harvested and tested for radioactive cesium later in the year.
The fallout from the radioactive cloud is not evenly distributed, and the radiation levels remain high in some pockets, especially on foothills around the town, said two volunteer citizen patrolmen, Morio Matsumoto, 65, and Yasumi Murohara, 71, who are taking part in the survey. “Our dosimeter only goes up to 20 microsieverts per hour and it was at maximum,” said Matsumoto, discussing one foray into the hills.
Questions also are being raised on the efficacy of decontamination efforts.
The Fukushima Prefecture government said that its work in the field indicates that overall radiation levels decline by 37 percent with decontamination work, which may not be sufficient to make highly contaminated areas suitable for habitation. And areas that are cleaned can be recontaminated by radioactive materials carried by wind or water.
Despite the radiation already in the city, many Odaka residents and some nuclear energy experts are more concerned about the safety of the battered Fukushima Daichi plant.
The Japanese government and the plant operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, have assured the public that the plant is stable and that safety systems are being restored.
Kyle Drubek
A bicycle lies abandoned at a local elementary school in Odaka.
But Takahashi Kei, a former cooling system worker at the plant now working as a radiation survey volunteer, said the utility company’s executives are portraying the situation in the best possible light.
“There are leaks everywhere, wreckage too. It’s not as simple as they portray,” he said.
Kobayashi also is highly suspicious of the assurances of the Japanese government and TEPCO about the Fukushima Daichi plant’s status.
“If there is no radiation exposure danger here, then the only danger remaining is the reactors. I think that is why we are not being allowed to return,” she said. “We just want to know the truth, no matter how bad it is. If they hide one thing from us, how can we believe anything they say?”
Kyle Drubek
Nuclear reactor specialist Hiroaki Koide.
'I wouldn't ask younger people to return'
TEPCO acknowledges that three reactors at the plant remain full of melted and re-solidified fuel that must be removed and that spent fuel pools elsewhere on the grounds must be kept cool to prevent them from releasing radiation again. It estimates it will take about 40 years to completely decommission the site.
Tetsuo Sawada, a nuclear engineer and assistant professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, describes the cleanup as a “difficult and major undertaking.”
Others see the situation as more dire.
“The state of the reactors is still deteriorating … the incident is still progressing,” said Hiroaki Koide, a nuclear reactor specialist and an assistant professor at Kyoto University. “The current issues we are faced with is how to remove the radioactive material without releasing it. … All we can presently do is pray that there is not a large earthquake (that could further damage the plant). The possibility of Fukushima releasing more radioactive material than Chernobyl is still a reality.”
Ultimately, financial pressures may be the deciding factor in whether evacuees return to Odaka. Under current government standards, residents are eligible for property compensation only if evacuation orders stay in place. If the orders are rescinded, they must decide whether to shoulder the loss and walk away from their homes and businesses or return face possible radiation exposure and the danger posed by the damaged nuclear plant.
What was once a gleaming city full of good jobs, new schools and modern apartments is now a ghost town infected with radiation. NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.
Such agonizing mental calculus is evident in the repopulated Haramachi district north of Odaka, where many parents restrict their children to playing indoors, or in school yards or gymnasiums that have been decontaminated. And despite widespread availability of health tests and full-body scanning, many residents are concerned about food contamination, as well as airborne dust and sand that they fear may contain radioactive material.
Nearer the epicenter of the nuclear nightmare, in Odaka, such fears are bound to be amplified. And in a town where 28 percent of the population was older than 65 before the disaster, that has Kobayashi questioning whether her hometown can survive.
“I only have another 20 years or so to live, (so) it won’t be an issue for me,” she said. “… (But) I wouldn’t ask the younger people to return.”
Click here to sign up to receive our Top News email each day.
More world stories from NBC News:
- In Japan, a nuclear ghost town stirs to life
- Olympic security plan turns London into fortress
- Myth vs. truth in the Syrian conflict
- 'Building Tomorrow' -- one school at a time in Uganda
- Spain teeters on the edge of a steep 'fiscal cliff'
- Going for gold: British workers cash in on Olympics with strike threats
- 'Building Tomorrow' - one school at a time in Uganda
- Ice melt found across 97 percent of Greenland, satellites show
- Afghan police commander leads defection to Taliban
- In Kenya, cell phones can do everything
Leave a Comment:
Liars, 3 out of 4 nuclear meltdowns and 6 miles aren't far enough. Stop treating people like sheep. I thought Japanese people where smarter than that.
I think they're screwed.
Isn't it interesting .....
We never read about this city to begin with.
Now only is Japanese society secretive but this shows how unreliable our own US news organizations are when it comes to getting the TRUTH out about a calamity.
heard ; ; those pet iguana that were left behind...can do more trick's than Godzilla on steroids...
On the plus side, they can serve as human guinea pigs that we may study for future safety! Thank you Japanese pioneers!
On the bright side, they can save on their electric bills since everything now glows in the dark.
"Now only is Japanese society secretive but this shows how unreliable our own US news organizations are when it comes to getting the TRUTH out about a calamity."
Or maybe you just missed that story?
My eyes went wide when I read this article. People are allowed to go back THAT close? I think this is a horrendous example of an electric company and a government trying to save face. Maybe behind closed doors they are evaluating which nukes are safest to restart. Still, don't lead people to believe they will be safe in an obviously still irradiated area just so you're not too embarrassed. Holy cow!
If anyone is dumb enough to go back and live there, well, stupid is as stupid does. Hopefully they don't start forcing children, who have ho legal way to refuse, to go back there.
Idiots.
two comments on one of the most important stories in our lifetimes. we are all sheep
I feel so sorry for the Japanese people and all of us. the lies just keep coming and long with the lies will be illnesses and deaths. Nuclear power was always a very bad idea and one with terrible consequences.
time to stop the lies and evacuate the ppl. admit it Japan/ nuclear industry - you dont care if we die from your lies
OH BS!
Yep the misinformed neurotic media nut jobs are up early today.. How do you
people live? You must all be State or Federal Employees, Teachers or live on
retirement, there is a real world out there and people that must live and work
in it, there is no viable resource to replace Nuclear power that is cleaner to
our global environment, and the key word in your statement was "FEEL"
see you "FEEL" so much... you need some couch time sweetheart Uhhh (puke!)
just say no to feelers with keyboards!
I will tell you what dumb808, you think it's so safe YOU move there 6 miles from 3 melted down reactors. How does any of that warrant an attack on publice sector workers? Reich wingers are all alike. If you pull your head partially out of your butt you will see there are viable alternatives to nuclear that are clean and safe.
K2,
Please enlighten me on the viable alternatives.
The alternative must:
1. Be able to replace all nuclear at the flip of a switch.
2. Must not require the use of large areas of land to generate electricity (because that would threaten wildlife or make land unusable maybe larger than a nuclear meltdown would)
3. Energy provided by this alternative must be similarly priced like nuclear energy.
4. This alternative must be able to be developed more to be able to replace coal/oil plants at a later date.
When you come up with an alternative that is ready to take over where nuclear energy works, I'll listen. Until that time, I will support nuclear energy with its faults.
bohnman: You need to apply your conditions to nuclear industry as well, when you do you fail miserably. First of all is cost, nuclear power facilities cost about 10 times to decommission them as it does to build them, it is proven that when adding the maintenance, storage of rods and decommissioning costs nuclear is most expensive energy source on the planet by far. What about fresh water? The amount of fresh water a power plant goes through does it not affect the environment? Many are on river systems that already cannot sustain both the plant and the water level in the river to accommodate both the local fish populations and the cooling of the nuclear plant. The mining and cleaning of the nuclear products have historically produced lakes of acid laced nuclear waste left over from processing plans long before the finished product makes it to the nuclear plant. Sure the actual plant is clean and cheap when running, but when the actual costs and aggregate processes are added nuclear turns out to be the MOST expensive and dirtiest methods for energy ever contrived.
So then your suggestion is to go back to the 1800s? We use lots of energy. Coal/oil is extremely dirty and pollutes. Nuclear is cleaner than Coal/oil by comparison. Yes it has more hazards, but it is better than coal/oil. Now again, name an alternative that would be able to replace nuclear....
Solar is ready now. People don't realize how far prices have fallen. What used to cost $15/watt in Carters time now costs as low as 75 cents/watt. Solar is now the cheapest form of energy available, cheaper than even hydro, if you own it. No need to pave over the desert with silicon, there are already 200,000,000 rooftops sitting idle.
"Grid batteries" solve the no sun/night time problem, use excess solar in the day to generate hydrogen then burn it at night.
Solar is so cheap it could even survive without federal subsidies. The only issue with solar is up front costs, that can be solved with a government sponsored loan program.
Germany is as far north as Canada yet they are #1 in solar, on sunny days they get 50% of their power from the sun. It's supremely stupid to say it doesn't work when it already is. I have 10KW on my roof and it handles 90% of my electric needs, payback less than eight years. After that electricity is free. No other source can match that.
I forgot to mention solar capacity is already doubling year over year in the US and that will continue. Prices are dropping an avearage 20%/yr. By the end of the decade you'd be a fool not to have a roof full of solar.
I agree that solar is a good choice for personal use, home, etc. I have looked into it myself to a certain degree. It is a huge investment at the beginning that most average people just can't make. The problem is that it won't work as well for industrial uses. I just don't think that solar is developmentally ready to completely take over for nuclear.
The problem with solar on a large scale right now is not the cost of it not the efficiency. The reason solar is so expensive and non-viable on national scale is the materials used to make the cells. We have the room to put enough solar cells in to power the entire country, but there is not enough ruthenium, gallium, or arsenic to make that many solar cells. I currently am doing research with iron as a potential method for harnessing the sun's energy...but even when I finish my grad degree with it, it would still take 10 years to implement a functioning model.
Also when it comes to radiation, the radiation decay is exponential to distance, meaning that the radiation drastically drops off the farther from the reactor you go....at least in the air.
Becca,
You go do research. Hopefully something good comes from it. If not, then you have discovered another way not to harness the suns energy (quoting Thomas Edison). We as a society will figure out a way to replace nuclear.
russian tv in disguise of max kaiser show today in british time gave vent to the fact the japanese government has order the radiation monitors to be cover to give false reading as to the dangerous level of of death ray the workers are enduring every day.
Michael J Heavey: You're probably mixed up regarding the story you seem to be alluding to: one executive of one private Japanese company has been accused of asking or telling workers to cover radiation detectors with lead so they would not give so high readings and so the company (a subcontractor working on pipe insulation at the Fukushima Dai Ichi plant) would not lose its contract.
The food supply will be contaminated for the next 120 years. Do Not eat anything. Do not eat any Seafood products from Japan for at least 3 more years.
Yep,
The sky is certainly falling.
Scientist1: Do not eat anything? I'm fairly certain that will kill anyone who heeds your sage advice much more quickly than the nuclear energy threat will. What science do you adhere to? Mortuary science would be my guess. If people follow your advice, business wil be really good for you. . .for a while.
Are fish from the Pacific Ocean and Japanese coastal and inland waters safe to eat 16 months after the Fukushima nuclear disaster?
Governments and many scientists say they are. But the largest collection of data on radiation in Japanese fish tells a very different story.
In June, 56 percent of Japanese fish catches tested by the Japanese government were contaminated with ce-sium-137 and -134. (Both are human-made radioactive isotopes—produced through nuclear fission—of the element cesium.)
And 9.3 percent of the catches exceeded Japan’s official ceiling for cesium, which is 100 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg). (A becquerel is a unit of radioactivity equal to one nuclear disintegration per second.)
Radiation levels remain especially high in many species that Japan has exported to Canada in recent years, such as cod, sole, halibut, landlocked kokanee, carp, trout, and eel.
Of these species, cod, sole, and halibut, which are oceanic species, could also be fished by other nations that export their Pacific Ocean catch to Canada.
The revelations come from the Japanese Fisheries Agency’s radiation tests on almost 14,000 commercial fish catches in both international Pacific and Japanese waters since March 11, 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami triggered multiple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
The wrecked plant spewed enormous amounts of radiation into the Pacific, where cesium levels near the Fukushima coast shot up to an astonishing 45 million times the pre-accident levels...
http://www.straight.com/article-735051/vancouver/japans-irradiated-fish-worry-bc-experts
shakalac: Thank you for the link to the interesting article. Here is one to the place the data were drawn from: http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/e/inspection/index.html. You can backtrack to the Japanese original from this place. The latest data available (for July 2012) shows no catches exceeding the relatively conservative levels allowed by Japanese law. (I call them "relatively conservative" because Japan's levels are 1/10th those of Canada, for example.) A compilation of data for April 2011 to June 2012 (http://www.jfa.maff.go.jp/e/inspection/pdf/120629_kekka_en2.pdf) shows 9 catches at higher than the Canadian limits, all of them from Fukushima Prefecture. (Fish from Fukushima Prefecture were under a blanket ban until May 2012, when some [inspected] catches were cleared for sale; these, so far, are only sold in the Fukushima area so far.)
Readers of the article to which shakalac linked should keep in mind that none of the contaminated fish to which [the article's author] Roslin referred were sold. Readers familiar with the topic will also note that there is nothing offered for comparison: a look at some of the comments in the Straight.com article conveniently refers to some of the other shortcomings.
Is it worth all that Radiation to destroy the lives of some many people just to give people a better way of life....Folks : Its going to happen in this country someday and when it does it won't be worth a plug nickel...The wealthy don't and never have gave two Sh*ts for the people it's all about money and who pays for it in the end.
GOD HELP US ALL:
Why would the wealthy care about someone that isn't working to better themselves?
Get off the class warfare bonehead, this has nothing to do with wealth. At the time nuclear was the cleanest energy source available and nobody thought these things could happen. Now we know better.
How many solar panels are on your roof? Put your money where your mouth is if you want to make an impression.
GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES.
"and nobody thought" ?
Really ?
Those who fail to learn from their mistakes are facing dire consequences!
How many new Nuclear power plants are scheduled to be built in the U.S.?
It's amazing how money clouds the mind, and prevents people from accepting the truth.
DV, one nuclear pwr plant is now being built, as a 2nd generation pwr plant its designed to shutdown safely without any input from operators. The last pwr plant before this recent one was built in 1976. Your truth isnt necessarily the TRUTH. Its amazing how ignorance / fear clouds the mind and prevents people from accepting the truth.
It isn't about the money, it's about being cleaner than coal or nat gas. Solar doesn't make sense for utilities, it does make sense for individuals.
How many solar panels are on your roof? As you said:
"It's amazing how money clouds the mind, and prevents people from accepting the truth."
That applies to you as well.
The govt says it's safe , so don't worry and go back to working.
"How many solar panels are on your roof?"
This clears up everything now shut up and get back to work and stop thinking.
Bluefin Tuna lovers, Do not eat for at least the next 3 years.
scientist1----a recent expose on Frontline (PBS) featured the mining industies attempt to gain permit for deep mining project (called Peebles project) in Alaska. this mine would threaten the alaskan salmon runs (mining industry guarantees this would not be the case since they will protect the slag mountain created from the mining with a potentially 23 mile long encasement which will have to be maintained in perpetuity (forever). any leakage of the poison acid would destroy the salmon. seismic activity potentially could release this mountain of ''filings'' and cause untold destuction of the area. and if this is approved and a disaster occurs and the poison is released the mining industry response will be ''oops''----it was an act of god-not our fault. no structure made by man can be 100% safe and maintained forever. sarah pallin gutted the alaska environmental protection laws and according to alaskan officals the mining company will get their permits.
granny22, Its just like when they blast off a Nuclear or Toxic payload into space. Or transfer nuclear waste by truck, They say its safe. But oops if something happens.
Ray, high level radiation nuclear waste is transported in containers designed to withstand a train hitting them, lower waste radiation isnt transported that securely, however if spilled its much easier to clean up.
Our rail system moves millions of tons of toxic material and waste everyday.
alaskan proposed mining project is called ''Pebbles Project''-typo-sorry---
There you go again telling people to starve to death. I don't think you're really a scientist.
Technology is quickly eating us up and spitting us right back out.
Technology is keeping you warm in the winter or cool in the summer, it keeps you healthy and active for longer than any of your ancestors. It allows us to travel to anywhere in the world in a few days. You can have the 1800 century dentists or doctors, me Im glad to have modern technology.
Technology is the only thing that will save us. Wind turbines and solar panels are technology.
I used to work at a nuclear pwr plant and as a professional nuclear power operator the ignorance and stupidity of the general public I always found you could never overestimate. All these accidents, and there have been 3 bad ones, all have occurred in 1st generation type pwr plants and while they have caused major local damage think of the amount of CO2 that we would have had to inject into the air without nuclear power. On a global scale that amount of CO2 would cause more damage than any of these accidents. Newer plant designs are designed to prevent these kinds of accidents. However with the used fuel having to be stored at each pwr plant, thats a accident ready to happen, this fuel needs to be collected and stored at the storage site in Arizona, but Senator Reed has blocked this for decades.
The thing is, solar is now cheaper than nuke, has been for years. Solar with grid battery technology is where we are heading, we need a low interest loan program to convert the nation. We are already doubling solar capacity every year, we need to accelerate that.
Of the three disasters only the third was man made and the only one the Earth cannot recover from in a reasonable time. Mother Nature sends fires, flood, tornadoes and other disaster but she doesn't contaminate the land to where crops won't grow or man can't use it. We have droughts that last a couple years but nuclear contamination will possibly last thousands of years. "Nuclear energy is clean". We have heard that but two parts of it are not. The waste products have to be stored for years at the site's expense and cared for whether the parent company goes bust or not. Someone has to pay to watch that and keep it under water. If an "incident" occurs you have radiation floating all over the globe to contaminate not only people but the food chain. We have seen what massive radiation does after WWII and we have seen what an "incident" does in Chernobyl and Japan. Do we build these potential time bombs in the middle of nowhere so we can walkaway and write the land off after an "incident"? No we build them in the most populated centers we can find since that is where the power is needed. Which makes more sense to write off and walk away from, some desert in Arizona or Atlanta, Charlotte and L.A.? The Japanese are reportedly going to re-open their nuclear plants. We nuked them once and they nuked themselves once, how many times does it take to realize the results (energy) are not worth the risks? Forrest can get rid of CO2 produced by the burning of fossil fuels but I don't know of anything that gets rid of nuclear radiation. With solar, wind, geothermal and tidal why us the one method guaranteed and proven to make the land uninhabitable?
Wade, there isnt any other way to generate the massive amounts of power our society needs without CO2 emissions except nuclear power, CO2 is harder to see the damage but how much damage does a extra hurricane cause on the east coast, or drought in the heartland, or 100 yr storms occurring each year?
Wrong! Solar and wind are growing by leaps and bounds. Solar is cheaper than nuke, cheaper than anything if the customer owns and installs it. Instead of government underwriting a nuke plant how about underwriting a low interest solar conversion loan program?
you take the federal money out of it and its no cheaper...
let the old folks go back and live there, most of these type of cancers take 20+ years to develop and get serious, they will have died long before they start developing tails and webbing on their hands and feet...........oops did my republican accidently leak out? lol
Actually, you are right. They are also beyond child bearing years so no fear of defects either.
Strange, someone keeps abandoning the same bicycle in front of the photographer. :-)
That's what you get when you leave old reactor designs sitting within tsunami range in a sesmically active area.
Japan's position near the Ring of Fire actually makes it perfect for geothermal: however I suspect the key players in the nuclear power industry aren't going to like it.
Looks like it time for serious world energy cooperation. Cold fusion is a deffinate and probably possibility. Before the naysayers get started with that, just ponder the billions power corporations such as GE are making from superconductive magnets in MRI machines and the like. That is all due to the advance of cold fusion. But true to the cold facts of greed, it is being gutted by big money to advance its own ends!
Fed Up, its not surprising you get a lot of naysayers when you spout that kind of ignorance. Education is a terrible thing to waste but you do it anyway.
The same was said of every advance to man until it happened, lighten up and open your mind. Its better than your alternative of a closed mind spewing juvenile insults.
Fusion is the ultimate gold plated buggy whip. It will never be viable. They are still talking decades just to have a sustainable field, 50 years to production. By then solar and wind will be so cheap fusion will be a joke. There is no such thing as cold fusion, every announcement has been a hoax.
They need to update that slideshow; it's over a year old. Not exactly "now" anymore.
When Three Mile Island had it's fun times we picked up trace radiation on a geiger counter over 40 miles away and that was just a partial meltdown.Man everyone was scattering anywhere the wind was not blowing.We stayed and yeah ok sometimes we have a faint glow but other than that it's all good.
Geiger-Mueller tubes always have a 'trace' reading. . .if they're working. You would have had to know what your background reading was before the accident to be able to tell if you had a 'trace.' Unlikely at 40 miles.
"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus
drift toward unparalleled catastrophes." Albert Einstein
"the government believes that radiation levels in the town are safe"
Gotta love it.
I remember how I worried about all of the animals left behind, some tethered. Really did not care about anything else for awhile. They had no chance.
yeah trust the government .. move right in . um yeah..