Nothing to worry about - everything is under control (incident in France)

[markjay]

Injuries feared after blast at French nuclear power plant

Let's hope for a Western wind......

 

[whitenemesis]

I'd be more concerned with the threat from the north ...

FOUR of Iceland's volcanos are on the brink of erupting | Daily Mail Online

Four of Iceland's main volcanoes all preparing for eruption - Iceland Monitor

Four Of Iceland's Volcanoes Are Priming To Erupt | IFLScience

 

[grober]

Injuries feared after blast at French nuclear power plant

Let's hope for a Western wind......

The explosion took place in the engine room section of the plant. The nuclear section of the plant was uneffected. Ironically it was probably France's decision to adopt nuclear power for their pwer generation that lead to Europe's eventual adoption of diesel powered cars as the answer to climate change which in turn lead to the localised pollution problem the UK government is currently wrestling with today.

https://translate.google.com/transl...de-flamanville-des-blesses-4790646&edit-text=

[YOUTUBE HD]I09DhTubNqE[/YOUTUBE HD]

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Have you heard about Fukushima recently? they have found a room reading: 530 Sieverts an hour (00.1 Sievert is an Xray machine). Basically you would be dead in 20 seconds in that room.

 

[grober]

It was wrecked by a tidal wave caused by movements of the Earth's tectonic plates many miles away . It was allegely built to withstand local earthquakes. In retrospect building Nuclear Reactors anywhere on the Pacific rim of fire seems a bad idea! :fail It has to be acknowledged that France's development of Nuclear Power was intimately tied up with General De Gaulle's plan to build up France's Force de Frappe nuclear capability. Britain on the other hand had Sellafield!

 

[KillerHERTZ]

Fukushima to be fair did shut down correctly as planned, however the water flooded the backup generators causing the fuel rods to overheat/meltdown.

 

[DSM10000]

Have you heard about Fukushima recently? they have found a room reading: 530 Sieverts an hour (00.1 Sievert is an Xray machine). Basically you would be dead in 20 seconds in that room.

To be accurate a Chest radiograph exposure with modern equipment is around 0.1mSv, it is not the machine that determines the dose ,rather the examination type.

A dose of 0.1mSv is equivalent to about two weeks normal background radiation exposure depending where you live.

 

[markjay]

To be accurate a Chest radiograph exposure with modern equipment is around 0.1mSv, it is not the machine that determines the dose ,rather the examination type.

A dose of 0.1mSv is equivalent to about two weeks normal background radiation exposure depending where you live.

So how much is a full-body PET scan....?

(Times 14, from memory)


It's about 35 minutes inside the machine.

 

[whitenemesis]

So how much is a full-body PET scan....?

(Times 14, from memory)


It's about 35 minutes inside the machine.

Turn the lights out .... Do you glow in the dark??

 

[DSM10000]

So how much is a full-body PET scan....?

(Times 14, from memory)


It's about 35 minutes inside the machine.

The answer is: It depends on the isotope used and body part(s) scanned.

The time inside the scanner is not relevant, the majority of that time will be for the emission scan to build up data. Most PET/CT use F18 as the Isotope, it has a short half life (circa 110 minutes) and modern CT scanners also have active dose reduction technology.

However, you have to view and exposure as part of your life long exposure and this includes radiation dose from your environment, travel (people happily fly abroad many times but question a small medical exposure!)

 

[Dryce]

It was wrecked by a tidal wave caused by movements of the Earth's tectonic plates many miles away . It was allegely built to withstand local earthquakes.

As Killerhertz said - the issue is a bit more complicated than that - the power station was inunudated with water - the backup systems got knocked out by the water - leavig the operators pretty helpless.

I think this is rather poignant in its own way. I think it hammers home the fact that when designing systems that require active backup systems (in this case the assumption was they would be attached to their own power grid and their own generators were a backup to that) you have to figure what happens if everything fails.

I think it also highlights the need for reactors to have cooling (or energy transfer) systems that have some sort of natural circulation.

Reactors anywhere on the Pacific rim of fire seems a bad idea!

Arguably any coastal area is at risk from inundation up to a given level due to tectonics or smaller land or undersea slides.

It has to be acknowledged that France's development of Nuclear Power was intimately tied up with General De Gaulle's plan to build up France's Force de Frappe nuclear capability. Britain on the other hand had Sellafield!

I think you'll find that Chapelcross and the other Magnox reactors sort of had dual purpose!

And somehow India got a lot of people thinking Thorium reactors don't make anything useful for the military (yeah right! Of course they can!).

I think however that France's real build up of nuclear power ran well beyond way beyond the military needs back in the 70s and has not a lot to do with diesel cars. The UK had oil and dithers about things. France didn't have oil and gets on with things.

 

[markjay]

.....people happily fly abroad many times but question a small medical exposure!...

I wouldn't worry about medical exposure if I knew it was small... problem is, I have no idea if it's small or big.

 

[DSM10000]

I wouldn't worry about medical exposure if I knew it was small... problem is, I have no idea if it's small or big.

What do you think of as small?

Everything is relative, different parts of the world have quite widely varying background radiation levels, as I also mentioned, air travel causes you to receive higher levels of cosmic radiation (Concorde passengers and flight crew had even higher levels due to the higher altitude at which it flew) and the majority of people flying do not give a thought to any increased radiation exposure.

Medical exposures are very tightly controlled in the UK where the guidance advocates (and in cases mandates) some of the lowest levels in the world.

Radiation dosimetry is a complex subject but do not forget that we are also exposed to many more potential hazards both environmental and self-inflicted.

You may find this helpful:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...mparisons/ionising-radiation-dose-comparisons

 

[zipdip]

I seem to remember that if you lived within a certain distance of the french nuclear power stations you got free electricity.

 

[Dryce]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...mparisons/ionising-radiation-dose-comparisons

UK vs US annual radiation exposure - I wonder what that's about?

Cornwall is even higher than I thought ...... but watch out for that Brazil nut habit - eight 100mg packs is the equivalent of a transatlatic flight!

 

[grober]

UK vs US annual radiation exposure - I wonder what that's about?

2006 REPORT
There are clearly two major contributors to the exposure of the U.S. population from ionizing radiation: exposure to ubiquitous background radiation and medical exposure of patients.

While the USA will probably have the highest concentration of advanced medical imaging equipment in the world the arguement has been advanced that the increased prevalence of imaging modalities involving ionising radiation is driven by their private health care industry where people expect CT scans in a litigious climate and health care professionals are all too happy to bill their insurance for it.

 

[Dryce]

driven by their private health care industry where people expect CT scans in a litigious climate and health care professionals are all too happy to bill their insurance for it.

Ratio of US health care spending to UK spending per capita: 2.4

Ratio of US mSv exposure to UK mSv exposure: 2.3

Hmmmmmmmm ..........

 

[del320]

Anyone else old enough to remember these? Not only could you see your feet through the shoes, but also your bones!
I still have a full complement of toes...

Folk are just so paranoid nowadays.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

I seem to remember that if you lived within a certain distance of the french nuclear power stations you got free electricity.

By design or accident?

 

[artyman]

I can remember those shoe x-ray machines!!!