Pa. nuke plant event update #1 - worrisome info

[ensho]

http://hisz.rsoe.hu/alertmap/index.php?smp=&lang=eng


A large radiation leak in a Three Mile Island Reactor (TMI) has triggered a standard news blackout of TMI Reactor area and associated radiation leak events. The TMI Reactors are near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and about 155 miles from New York City. The TMI information released thus far is that it is a radioactive leak of an unknown orgin of an unknown "isotope" associated with the reactor. It is unknown if anyone died as a result of the ongoing radioactive leak. About 200 people were immediately evacuated from the reactor building. At least 25 people are thought to have been treated for unknown reasons. There are more than 600 deadly isotopes in the reactor. The reactor building was shut down. The reactor normally routinely vents lethal isotopes "to the air" as a matter of doing business. Many people were killed by a reactor explosion at TMI in 1979. More news as it is determined.
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[keith the dem]

1. Near Harrisburg, no where near Pittsburgh

[brendan120678]

2. I was about to post the same thing. (nt)

[JVS]

5. Very effective news blackout

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. Give or take 250 miles, I guess

LOL!

[Avalux]

3. Hungary reporting this? They need to look at a map.

I find it difficult to consider this info as valid if the article doesn't get location of TMI correct.

[jkshaw]

4. A lot of "unknowns."

VERY worrisome!

[FBaggins]

6. What kind of scaremongering is this?

A "large radiation leak"?

"Unknown if anyone died"?

And now "many people were killed by a reactor explosion" in 1979?

Was there anything accurate in this "reporting" apart from accurate spelling?

[whistler162]

7. "Many people were killed by a reactor explosion at TMI in 1979"

President Carter and Senator Kenndy did a excellent job of hiding this!:sarcasm:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident

"Health effects and epidemiology
Main article: Three Mile Island accident health effects
In the aftermath of the accident, investigations focused on the amount of radiation released by the accident. According to the American Nuclear Society, using the official radiation emission figures, "The average radiation dose to people living within ten miles of the plant was eight millirem, and no more than 100 millirem to any single individual. Eight millirem is about equal to a chest X-ray, and 100 millirem is about a third of the average background level of radiation received by US residents in a year."<31><52>

Based on these low emission figures, early scientific publications on the health effects of the fallout estimated one or two additional cancer deaths in the 10-mile area around TMI.<32> Disease rates in areas further than 10 miles from the plant were never examined.<32> Local activism in the 1980s, based on anecdotal reports of negative health effects, led to scientific studies being commissioned. A variety of studies have been unable to conclude that the accident had substantial health effects."

[FBaggins]

8. For comparison

The current incident supposedly exposed one employee to an additional 16 millirem (and others to less).

The annual exposure for nuke workers of this type is around 2,000 millirem. So... give the guy two days off and he's back to the normal amount.

[whistler162]

9. Not sure if this is the source of the Hungarian report

or just a rereporting of a flawed article.

http://www.examiner.com/x-8257-SF-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2009m11d22-Radioactive-leak-at-Three-Mile-Island-Nuclear-Power-Plant

[FarCenter]

10. Three Mile Island incident considered minor, but some question communication

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/11/tmi_incident_considered_minor.html

<SNIP>
At 4 p.m. Saturday, about 150 workers inside the Unit 1 containment building were sent home after a radiation alarm sounded inside the building. TMI spokesman Ralph DeSantis said the employees were safe; the employee most seriously exposed to radiation received roughly the same dosage as an X-ray, he said.

The contamination was contained inside the building and it was considered a very minor leak, DeSantis said. EFMR Monitoring, an independent group that tracks radiation levels, confirmed that there were no recorded spikes outside the facility.

“We have very low thresholds for declaring emergencies,” DeSantis said. “This did not come close to any threshold where even the lowest level of an emergency would be declared.”

If it had been a low-level emergency, local officials would have been notified within 15 minutes of the event, DeSantis said.

But Middletown Mayor Robert Reid was first notified almost five hours after the incident, and Dauphin County officials weren't aware until Reid called the county's 911 center at 9:30 p.m.

Dauphin County Commissioner Nick DiFrancesco, who oversees the county’s emergency response, said more heads-up would have allowed county officials to offer better answers to the media and public, who were asking questions Saturday night. He and others at the county felt they should have been notified earlier regardless of the incident’s severity, he said.

<SNIP>

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Some news blackout!

[NutmegYankee]

11. Is this a joke? Every fact is wrong!

Location, events in 1979, etc etc.

[SidDithers]

12. Sigh...

unrec'd for ignorant fearmongering.

Sid

[Obamanaut]

13. self delete