32 Radioactive Sites In China Buried In Quake - With Video
Dude, that’s some spooky stuff. Chinese State-Run TV is saying 30 of 32 sites have been secured (yeah, right). Latest numbers are 40,000 dead and 5 Million homeless.
BEIJING — More than 30 sources of radiation were buried by debris from the massive earthquake in central China last week and all have either been recovered or safely cordoned off, state media reported Tuesday.
A French nuclear expert said the radioactive sources likely came from materials used in hospitals, factories or in research, not for weapons.
The Chinese government has previously said all nuclear facilities affected by the May 12 earthquake were safe and under control, but did not give any details about which sites were affected or whether any were damaged.
But the quake buried 32 sources of radiation under rubble in Sichuan province, the heart of the disaster zone, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian.
All but two have been recovered, and the remaining two have been located, cordoned and will soon be transported to a safer location, Xinhua said.
Xinhua did not elaborate on any potential threat to the public and did not provide details on the radioactive sources beyond calling them “nuclear facilities and radioactive sources for civilian purposes.”
Though Sichuan has no commercial nuclear power plants, the province has extensive military and nuclear weapons research facilities. The headquarters for China’s nuclear weapons design facility is in Mianyang and a plutonium processing facility is in Guangyuan, both cities damaged by the quake.
In response to the quake, the military sent soldiers to protect nuclear sites and the country’s nuclear safety agency notified staff to be prepared in case of an environmental emergency.
China’s main government Web site and a state-run newspaper described “nuclear facilities” and “radioactive sources” as including power plants, reactors, and sites for fuel production and waste disposal, as well as materials used for scientific research and medical treatment.
An official at a French nuclear watchdog who has seen reports from the Chinese nuclear safety agency said materials found in the rubble appeared to come from hospitals, factories or laboratories and were not for used for making nuclear fuel or weapons.
“It doesn’t shock me that there would be radioactive items found,” particularly hospital equipment, said Thierry Charles, director of plant safety at the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety.
An unknown number of hospitals were damaged or destroyed in the earthquake. The Sichuan province health department listed 489 major hospitals in areas that were hardest hit.
Workers removing radioactive material would first find it with detection devices, then extract the material and place it in a sealed container quickly, Charles said. Then it would be repaired or disposed of as nuclear waste.
Information so far suggests “a good reaction by the Chinese teams,” Charles said.
However, he said risks remain, primarily from any materials that have not been retrieved or sealed. People who remain in close proximity could receive excessive doses of radiation.
There was also a risk that people could be exposed to radioactivity if some materials were crushed in a building collapse, for example, he said.
Overall, he did not foresee a major risk to groundwater or health because most of the material was probably metal equipment, not fuel or something that disperses more widely.
The French watchdog agency has previously said that China reported “light damage” to unspecified nuclear facilities that were being dismantled before the quake.
(AP)
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Commies & nukes don’t go well together–it’s a historical trend. The PRC won’t care if a few million get radiation poisoning.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:29 amAnd the bad thing about the Commie countries is that they do not disclose any information. Of course it will be hard to hide the bodies of millions or the giant uptrend in cancer cases but by then it will be too late. Societies should be open so that way there can be some sort of worldwide checks and balances system. and no i dont mean world courts or a one world government. just a little transparency
May 20th, 2008 at 7:43 amas I said previously, the sportmen/women should take iodine pills in their case
May 20th, 2008 at 7:53 amIf you have to clean up hazardous waste contamination it helps a whole lot if it is radioactive, versus a chemical like dioxin. Radiation detectors are cheap and sensitive and detection levels are far below what will hurt you in the short term, versus having to take a gazillion samples and process them at a lab with a gas chromatograph and/or mass spectrometer.
Bureaucracies like the EPA are way too conservative with their linear dose to disease rate assumption when there is plenty of evidence that our bodies can cope with low levels of toxins that cause disease at higher levels. People live in areas with high levels of natural background radioactivity, for example, and exhibit nowhere near the levels of disease predicted by the the linear rate model:
May 20th, 2008 at 7:55 amhttp://www.angelfire.com/mo/radioadaptive/ramsar.html
.”Based on results obtained in studies on high background radiation areas of Ramsar, high levels of natural radiation may have some bio-positive effects such as enhancing radiation-resistance. ”
there is an exemple in our country, at the steps of Volcanic Auvergne : Neris les Bains, it’s a thermal cure station that was used from roman age (may-be before, the romans used the same sites as the Celts), its renommée was made with its radioactive waters that cure rhumatism pains and nervous problems as Parkinson’s.
the place is based on granitic strates ; granits attract also the blitzs fom “orages”, wether the granit thing is an explanation or not…
May 20th, 2008 at 8:22 am