[QUOTE=Mtn;302259]I heard one talking head say that pregnant women and young children should be out of the area, as they are most vulnerable to radiation, I hope that already happened, before the talking head said it. In the late 80's early 90's I worked at a preschool that had several families that had "survived" Chernobyl,
the long lasting effects, the future health issues, and in fact deaths makes one question the term "survival". I just keep praying.[/QUOTE]
I agree with your statement about
quality of life in terms of survival from radiation exposure. Something to consider with future building of nuclear power plants worldwide. Frankly, I fear the present and future lack of R&D funds in the US (both public and private- Wall St investors don't like the risk in nuclear power). What is learned by this situation can't be corrected unless research is supported further.
There are so many variables involved in designing and building, then effectively running these plants. Yet, the magnitude of the natural disasters hitting those plants and how they rendered even the battery back up for cooling the cores inoperable demonstrates vulnerability even with the best and the brightest working in this field. And politics do get in the mix that I think blocks the real experts in these fields to build the best and safest plants possible.
Sitting with an elderly Japanese neighbor this past few days and hearing about what radiation posining does to people has been quite sobering. Her initial responses to what her home country is going through, as well as the loss of family still living there was one thing- the shift in her emotional response while hearing of the radiation threat is something else.
The new photos of the damage to the plants in Japan make me want the 50 workers that left for a short time to not be there at all.
Here is a link to a Mayo site about radiation posining and symptoms.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/rad...CTION=symptoms