Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (Full Version)

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pahunkboy -> Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 4:59:16 AM)

Radioactive Material Found in Illinois

Jim Anderson
CBS St Louis
April 2, 2011 Radiation believed to be from the nuclear plant disaster in Japan has been detected in Illinois. The radioactive iodine similar to what was released in Japan was found in a grass clipping in the Joliet area by the Radiological Assessment Field Team, which regularly checks on vegetation, air, milk and eggs to determine if any radiation is leaking from Illinois’ nuclear reactors. Full article here



DarkSteven -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 5:25:25 AM)

*Sigh*....

This is NOT radioactive "material".  That term is generally used to indicate a discrete chunk of fissile material (Pu, U, etc.).  What WAS found was an elevated level of iodine.

There is nothing in the article to indicate any link to the Japanese reactor failures, or for that matter, how much (if any) the detected levels exceeded normal background levels.  Or whether other municipalities conduct similar testing, and if so, what their results have been - if Japanese fallout DID migrate here, it would not show up in Illinois first.

My conclusion is that prisonplanet doesn't have the slightest idea how to do journalism.  Or anything about radiation principles.



Moonhead -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 5:41:44 AM)

I suppose you have to give them some credit for finding the iodine: they normally can't find their arses with both hands and a map, after all.



Muttling -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 6:17:40 AM)

Why did you neglect to quote the entire article you linked since it was VERY short.    More interestingly, why did you choose to leave out these 2 paragraphs????

"Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency says the levels are low: The amount of radiation would have to be 200,000 greater than what was detected to meet the regulatory limit for emission from a nuclear power plant.

Nevertheless, the state will now conduct more tests in other parts of the state."



Edited to fix line breaks.



LaTigresse -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 6:21:09 AM)

PA, in your case more information is not a good thing.

Go for a walk, get away from all the online bullshit you get yourself sucked into.



mnottertail -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 6:22:10 AM)

I should point out that radioactivity can be found in this watch I am wearing in Minnesota.

But I will be goddamned, they tracked that little isotope from Fukishima all the fuckin way to a grass clipping in Illinois.

I expect that had we the foresight to analyse grass clippings from the 1960s we would have found about the same, unfortunately, the iodine isotope would not have lasted long enough to go from illinois to the lab in japan, had we not analyzed it on the spot.



MasterG2kTR -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 7:44:25 AM)

This is a map of Iodine-131 fallout for the US (this is a typical annual fallout or ground exposure) and it appears that Illinois has several heavy pockets. Not surprisingly, Springfield mentioned in the article is in one of the heavy pockets. Even at that, as Muttling said, these levels are nothing to worry about.

[image]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/US_fallout_exposure.png[/image]




DarkSteven -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 8:16:22 AM)

Thanks for the map.

If the iodine-131 was due solely to the Japanese mess, then the map would show highest level on the Pacific coast, tapering off as we moved East. The West coast actually has the lowest levels of iodine.

If we assume that the iodine migrates eastward only, then the source would have to be around the western coast of Idaho and Utah.  Doesn't make sense to me.

Based on the map alone, I would theorize that the source is the Rocky Mountains, and that the migration is predominantly eastward but has a westward component as well.  Make sense because mountains reflect a different mineral composition than the flatlands does.



mnottertail -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 8:17:49 AM)

I am sorta worried, I didn not know there was that much grass in Montana to catch the iodine in, and I hope they ain't tumbleweeds, comin this way, I have to go into my basement and breathe some radon as a sort of firebreak now.



porcelaine -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 8:23:24 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: MasterG2kTR

Not surprisingly, Springfield mentioned in the article is in one of the heavy pockets.


That explains the intelligence level on the Simpsons. [:D]



Muttling -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 9:48:26 AM)

Interesting map, but I don't think it's a fallout model.  In addition to the western seaboard being clean (as mentioned above), you don't see any west to east "paths" of increased contamination that would be characteristic of current weather patterns carrying the materials.   It looks more like a distribution of naturally occurring iodine-131 concentrations and it would seem to indicate that the great plains region acts as a trap that the naturally occurring iodine-131 doesn't tend to migrate from.   (Fortunately, the half life of iodine-131 is only 8 days.   The rule of thumb with radioactive materials is that virtually all of it is gone after 7 half lives, so this stuff doesn't hang around much more than 56 days.)



Termyn8or -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 9:58:42 AM)

Oh dear, they haven't told you have they ?

This planet has radioactive material all over it, and actually IN IT ! In fact some suspect that radioactive material actually came from the Earth.

Now who the hell would put it there ?

T^T



Muttling -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 10:10:24 AM)

hehe.....should we tell them that they have radioactive carbon (e.g. carbon-14) in their bodies and that's how carbon dating works?



Hippiekinkster -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 11:44:30 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: DarkSteven

Thanks for the map.

If the iodine-131 was due solely to the Japanese mess, then the map would show highest level on the Pacific coast, tapering off as we moved East. The West coast actually has the lowest levels of iodine.

If we assume that the iodine migrates eastward only, then the source would have to be around the western coast of Idaho and Utah.  Doesn't make sense to me.

Based on the map alone, I would theorize that the source is the Rocky Mountains, and that the migration is predominantly eastward but has a westward component as well.  Make sense because mountains reflect a different mineral composition than the flatlands does.


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0517-10.htm



shallowdeep -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 12:18:46 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Muttling
Interesting map, but I don't think it's a fallout model.

It apparently is a map of radioactive I-131 fallout, but obviously not from the Fukushima incident. It represents estimated exposures from US atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada according to the source. Those tests released around 5.55 x 10^18 Bq of I-131 based on an NCI report. For comparison, an estimate of I-131 released from the reactors in Japan during the first week places it between 10^16 and 7 x 10^17 Bq. Chernobyl released between 1.2 x 10^18 and 1.7 x 10^18 Bq of I-131.

It has been a pretty big release, but the dispersion means it isn't an appreciable health risk here at all. Incidentally, I've found the monitoring data that UC Berkeley's Department of Nuclear Engineering has been publishing interesting.



Termyn8or -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 12:21:39 PM)

"hehe.....should we tell them that they have radioactive carbon (e.g. carbon-14) in their bodies and that's how carbon dating works? "

Are you kidding me ? If they knew how much refined salt and sugar they ate in a year this whole nuclear threat would be a moot point. Global warming would be a board game put out by Milton Bradley. Drunk driving would be a video game. Guns would be in the hands of babies, which children would have instead of dolls.

No way.

T^T



pahunkboy -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 12:23:01 PM)

...and they even put this into the bombs. 



DarkSteven -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 12:23:50 PM)

If people are allowed to date carbon, then the next damn thing you know, they'll be wanting to date lesbians and gays, and then animals...



Termyn8or -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 12:24:16 PM)

"Incidentally, I've found the monitoring data that UC Berkeley's Department of Nuclear Engineering has been publishing interesting."

I know this sounds flippant, but it could result in more accurate weather forecasting.

T^T



Termyn8or -> RE: Radioactive Material Found in Illinois (4/2/2011 12:28:16 PM)

"If people are allowed to date carbon, then the next damn thing you know, they'll be wanting to date lesbians and gays, and then animals... "

You know what this could lead to..................

T^T



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