George Johnson Response

Though, only 20,000 people were killed during the Fukushim Daiichi nuclear reactor accident, there is no garantee that many more people may not die from long term impact of radiation exposure.”And that’s the problem with radiation—you often don’t see most of the impact for decades.”

When one thinks of radiation exposure and how it can impact the body, the belief tends to lean on the example of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the United States dropped the nuclear bombs upon them. The fallout from this attack killed thousands initially but also has continued to kill many due to cancer from the radiation. However, this is what is to be considered a large dose over a short amount of time and while seemingly detrimental; it is the small doses over a long period of time that can prove to be more costly.

Studies show that the estimated average dose of radiation to the approximated 2 million people in the vicinity of the accident was only about 1 millirem.In order to show how much this dosage is, the average chest x-ray eposes a person to about 6 millirems.Also, the people around the plant are exposed to about 100 millirems to begin with due to the natural environment they live in.[9]

"The blast killed an estimated 80,000 people instantly; thousands of others died later of radiation

Beginning with the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979, a widespread belief has proliferated that all levels of ionizing radiation are dangerous. Since 1980, radiation hormesis studies have shown there is actually a threshold of danger with high level exposures, but below that threshold low dose radiation is essentially safe and quite possibly beneficial to life. Yet, this relatively new, seemingly contradictory understanding of radiation's health effects has gone essentially unknown to the general public. In order to grasp the reasons why, we must again return to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

(Events of Fukushima Nuclear disaster) The Fukushima Nuclear disaster had many effects on the environment and health, some of its effects on the health are, infection of skin and that is mainly caused because of radiation and chemicals in the water after the incident and little supply of clean water, it also impacted the citizens physiologically (mainly the mothers, kids and workers) who might have diseases as anxiety and depression, problems in pregnancy, related to deficiency of iodine in the body, and some hormones not functioning properly, all these causes might lead to still birth, and miscarriage and finally, radiation syndrome which is caused because of the release of massive amounts of radiation, spread of cancer (as thyroid cancer) because of radiation, and ascend of genetic inheritable diseases As in Diagram 2 (Health Concerns in Fukushima), we can signify that the percentages of cancer increased highly because of the disaster in comparison to nowadays and especially between people of ages (1month-20years)

The book Hiroshima by John Hersey is about the atomic bomb and how it affected the lives of six specific characters. It not only ruined their neighborhood and shelter, but their bodies. Radiation hit these characters and the rest of the Hiroshima population like a truck. They had no idea what was happening to themselves. Not even the doctors in Japan knew what was happening like the Mother Superior of the International Hospital said: “’Think twice before you give this man blood transfusions, because with atomic-bomb patients we aren’t at all sure that if you stick needles in them, they’ll stop bleeding” (Hersey 74). Now in day, however, there is a great amount more known about the consequence of radiation on

On Wednesday, March 28, 1979, around 4 a.m., there was a failure in the water pumps at the Three Mile Island in Middletown, Pennsylvania. This led to a partial meltdown of a nuclear power plant. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services), the Department of Energy, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania all conducted particular studies of the radiological consequences of the accident. Approximately two million people were estimated to have received an average of one millirem of radiation, and there was a maximum dose to a person who was at the site of 100 millirem (“Backgrounder”). To put this into perspective, an exposure from a single chest X-ray is two to six millirem (“Doses”). However, this put fear into the minds of politicians and others all across the country. What the people do not know, though, is nuclear is better. Instead of using fossil-fuels and wind power, America ought to switch to nuclear energy to power the country because it is safer, cleaner, less expensive, and more reliable than the current ways of producing energy

Also, x rays are capable of detecting many other issues such as cancerous masses or pneumonia as well as even dental problems all of which, again, can and have saved many lives [4]. For comparison, 400 million people are subject to x rays annually, which save substantially more lives than those of which were killed in japan [5]. Radiation can also be applied, not only to see but also to save patients in that it can be used, since it damages tissues, to kill things like tumors and other potential dangerous or life threatening masses within your body. Ironically enough it kills what it causes and for purpose of numbers, women with breast cancer had a survival rate of 25.1% in 1944 that more than tripled to 76.5% in the years 1995-2004 [6]. Also, now, 67% of women receive radiation treatment after having been diagnosed and the number is increasing [6]. But, beyond the medical field there are also economical advances that are largely caused by the use of nuclear power. These include the implementation of nuclear power plants that provide the cleanest and quickest way of generating electricity [7]. Also, to again throw numbers into the equation, fossil fuels are being consumed faster than they can be produced and the fuel for nuclear reactors, Uranium-235, is only worth 20%,

should still be responsible for the people that were exposed to the radiation is because it could spread and accidently cause other to suffer and could help support the people suffering from the radiation. Radiation is energy and it can come from unstable atoms or it can be produced by machines. Radiation travels from its source in the form of energy waves or energized particles. There are actually two kinds of radiation, and one is more energetic than the other. It has so much energy it can knock electrons out of atoms, a process known as ionization. This ionizing radiation can affect the atoms in living things, so it poses a health risk by damaging tissue and DNA in genes. While there are other, less energetic, types of nonionizing radiation (including radio waves, microwaves—and visible light), this booklet is about ionizing radiation (Baes). According to illinoispoisoncenter, radiation comes from the sun and outer space, from man-made sources such as X-ray machines, and from some radioactive materials in soil. Even though radiation cannot technically spread from person to person, we encounter some radiation from foods, water, the air, our own bodies, and through medical procedures throughout our daily life and never usually receive too much that would cause

Recently, the deserted Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant has been emanating an alarming amount of radiation. Kyodo of Japan Times reported that the radiation reading has reached its highest level since its emergence in March 2011 (Kyodo, 2017). As a result, there is a greater presence of air and water pollution in Fukushima that could easily spread to surrounding areas. Therefore, it seems appropriate that in an interview with the Washington Post, radio-ecology expert Tom Hinton stated Fukushima is “an area that is among the most radioactively contaminated in the world” (as cited in Andrews, 2016). This resurgence has generated conspiracy theories, false maps and, interestingly, little news coverage. While many across different continents

The nuclear disaster in Fukushima occurred at fourteen forty six, Japanese time. The disaster occurred because a major magnitude nine earthquake struck North Eastern Japan and a fifteen meter high tsunami also struck the power plant (Grimston). There were eleven overall reactors that were effected by the earthquake and tsunami. Nine of the reactors cooling systems continued to work after the natural disasters occurred, but reactors one, two and three of the Fukushima Daiichi plant were terribly damaged and could not cool down the fission process. This is what lead to the one, two and three reactors to melt, causing the most detrimental damage to the global community (Grimston). Critics of the disasters say that Daiichi was not up to global nuclear safety standards because the wall the protected the plant was only stable against six meter tall tsunami waves, not the massive

That accident was at urban centre in 1986. consistent with the report two-handed down in 2000 by the global organisation X c. Committee on the consequences of Atomic Radiation, twenty eight employees died within the initial 3 months when the incident, nineteen died between 1987 and 2004 of varied causes not essentially related to radiation

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake occurred off the east coast of Japan, generating massive tsunamis, which severely damaged coastal areas. The earthquake and tsunami also hit the nuclear power plants (NPP) located in the coastal area in Tohoku and led to the loss of the entire core cooling capacity of three reactors of Fukushima Daiichi NPP and severe damage to the nuclear cores.1 Although deaths related to the release of radiation have not been reported six years after the disaster, the Japanese government and medical professionals have noticed an increase in mental health problems in emergency workers and evacuees. Numerous evacuations, physical detachment from homes and personal belongings, and stigmas between evacuees have been

Although radioactivity was at first just at the surface, later studies showed that these radioactive elements were absorbed by the soil and that their effects would be long-lasting (Gould 69). Within a short amount of time animals consumed these radioactive plants, and these particles worked their way up the food chain. Soon, not only berry crops in Austria had to be discarded, but also milk supplies in Italy (68, 69). More than twenty European nations received enough fallout to require food restrictions, and 100 million people altered their diets in the ensuing months (Flavin 6, 16). Adding to this paranoia was the fact that even the experts had little knowledge of what was happening. Most nations were unprepared, and many implemented differing safety guidelines for food (15). Some governments outright lied to quell the public’s fear (Gould 70). In the end, millions of people were exposed to unhealthy doses of radiation, and estimates for future deaths from cancer caused by this exposure range as high as one million, with half being fatal (Flavin 18). These are clearly examples of the externalities of a nuclear disaster.