acid rain has been a problem for years...i couldn't find any current information (one article boston low radiation rain last march)

every disaster circles the earth..look at mt st helens, or any number of volcanos around the world, including the disruption of air travel in europe...

you might find this article interesting..

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=chernobyl-nuke-cleanup-to-be-costly-for-decades-2011-04-25

"her husband's gieger-counter was off the meter."

The first question that comes to mind is why he has a geiger counter to start with? If the truth were told it is probably an old war surplus model that hasn't been calibrated in 50 years and the guy operating it probably doesn't have a clue how to read it. It says his gieger counter was off the meter, but what scale is it set on? Was he reading alpha, beta or gama radiation? Rems or mili-rems?

Many products in your home can peg the needle on a gieger counter. The allowable emission from a TV picture tube is about 10x higher than what is permitted from a microwave, but I don't see anyone warning you not to watch TV. Some smoke detectors have a low emission radio-active chip that can peg a gieger counter, but they are harmless to ppl. Your microwave has three separate micro switches to prove the door is closed properly so it will not leak radiation, yet the internal radiation level in the microwave is lower that the allowable radiation from the TV.

Have you ever suffered a severe sunburn? Did anyone tell you that a sunburn is in fact a radiation burn?

When they vented that radioactive gas in Japan the actual exposure at ground zero was approximately equal to the amount of exposure one would get if they had two chest x-rays and by the time that gas floats around the world to us the level of radiation would be so low that it is doubtful if they could detect it above the standard atmosphric ambient levels.

The problem is that the News Media likes to blow things way out of proportion to sensationalize their reports in the hope of getting thier pulitzer award, and the word radiation is one of those things that the general public knows very little to nothing about so at the mere mention of radiation the public is put into a panic.

When I was in the Air Force I was the head warehouseman for a B-52 Bomber munitions storage area where we stockpiled the nukes for a squadron of B-52 bombers. I have worked full 8hr days in an atmosphere that was hotter than the ground zero emission from that power plant and the only detox procedure we had to endure was taking a hot shower and putting on clean clothes.

On the other hand, if you want to go through a full medical detox proceedure believe me, its easy and some ppl would even find it fun. Just relax and drink two cases of beer a day for 5 days. The beer causes a full fluid exchange in all the cells of your body and that will flush you out. In fact, when I worked in the bomb dump they caugth me and two other guys intentionally putting our radiac badges in a hot environment so it would trigger the danger level so we could go to the base hospital and undergo the detox proceedure.

Quote:

The first question that comes to mind is why he has a geiger counter to start with? If the truth were told it is probably an old war surplus model that hasn't been calibrated in 50 years and the guy operating it probably doesn't have a clue how to read it.

Unquote.

There is a group of people, some of whom, have geiger counters. These are "rockhounds" and amateur geologists, or the curious and interested. Modern geiger counters are available - all it takes is money. These folks very likely would not use a WW2 surplus geiger counter for the simple reason that it requires too much power to be practical for the average hobbyist. Geiger counters made in the 1940s used vaccuum tubes - transistors had not been invented yet. Those old vacuum tube amplifiers required considerable amount of power and the gain drifted while in use. From a practical viewpoint, replacement amplifier tubes are non-existant. Modern instruments use solid state amplifiers. The modern geiger tube (sensor), however, is similar to the original.

Rockhounds who collect mineral specimens may check their finds with a gieger counter for safety purposes. Its not a good idea to carry a load of radioactive rocks in your pocket, especially near the gonads. On rare occasion, one might pick up a rock containing uranium-oxide and it may have radioactive elements.

Radioactivity has been used to measure wear rates in auto engines and cutting tools. Wear rate tests have been made in specially prepared test engines. An engine might be equipped with irradiated cam shafts and/or piston rings. The engine is run under various test conditions and the oil collected. (Wear particles appear in the engine oil.) The oil is measured for emmisions.

For cutting tools, an irradiated tool is mounted in a special research lathe and contolled cuts made on standardized test pieces. The chips are collected and measured for radioactivity. Tool wear particles micro-weld to the chips and loose particles fall into the collection bag.

These maesurements are tiny indeed and it takes careful procedures to get meaningful results. A major problem is that the background radiation is often as large or larger then the measurand. When we made measurements, our first chore was to take a background measurement to substract from the gross measurement. We were surprised at times by items that were ruining the measurements. On days with high sun spot activity, incomming radiation might be too variable and we could not measure on those days. The background has to be stable for this to work. One day, the physicist wore an old style glow-in-the-dark watch. its dial waa loaded with radium and played havoc with the readings. Other sources of radioactivity strong enough to be bothersome are cathode ray tubes (TV and oscillosope tubes) and neon lamps. Both meon lamps and cathode ray tubes have a small amount of radioactive material placed in their emitters. The usual matrial is thorium. Its there to aid electron emission and subsequent current flow through the space in the the tubes. In fact, a major cause of failure in neon lamps is age. In time, the radioactive material becomes 'used up' and weakened and the neon lamp begins to flicker and misfires.

Residents living in SE Wisconsin may find to their dismay that they have 'hot' basements. This problem is assocaited with cities using deep wells (1000 to 1200 ft deep) drilled into a deep sandstone water bearing strata. Water from this strata has small amount of radon gas. The water piped into households may bring in radon. Also, this gas seeps upward through the soil and permeable subsurface layers to collect in places like basements. It is a minute amount and the problem is that governing bodies do not have data on what is a safe level. As a result, the allowable amount is set low.

There are people around who have geiger counters and know how to use those. Admitedly, calibration is a problem and most hobbyist do not bother because relative measurements are suffificent for their use. For example, a person who has read his meter for two days and then on the third day sees a reading 2 to 4 times greater, it's a fair bet that something has changed.

Lazypup - and people used to think asbestos was the best thing since sliced bread, cigarettes were handed out like candy, babies were dipped in phisohex moments after being born, and pre-teens were encouraged to play with mercury in science class.

Nuclear meltdown IS a big deal. And if you believe anything we were told about how benign the radiation released was, then I have a bridge you might like to buy in Florida and some grape kool-aid for you to drink!

Dances.

The japanese nuclear power plant was in a dangerous state. A nuclear explosion was not in the offing, but steam explosions were real possibilities. The core was in a run-away state and melting. The plant was destroyed.

The problem is this: Once the core is fueled, it can not be "shut off" as one might shut off a light. The rate of nuclear reaction is moderated with control rods, but the reaction can not be completely shut off. It can be adjusted to various levels of output. When the plant is idled, all control rods shoved home, some heat is still being generated. Cooling liquid or gas must continue to flow through the core to maintain a safe condition.

The problem with the Japanese plant was that it lost its cooling. The builders never anticipated a sunami as large as the one they expereinced. The surge wave knocked out all on-site diesel generators that were intended to supply safe keeping power. When this happened, the plant was doomed.