Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
We all must stop to give our heartfelt sympathy to the Japanese people who have suffered the worse earthquake in its history. The tsunami that followed was even more horrific with whole towns vanished off the map. It's hard to find words to reach the level of empathy we feel.
The losses in life could reach 10,000, but right now over 500 confirmed deaths and some 9,500 souls missing! 4 entire trains vanished off the map!
Now, to add to this misery, one of the nuclear reactors has had cooling systems fail. I am gratified that the people around the site have been safely evacuated. The sad fact is that some folk at the plant have been reported to have radiation sickness. Even in this terrible circumstance, it's at least a relief that the metal containment has held and the control rods have been successfully inserted stopping the reaction. Still, I have concern about detection of small amounts of Iodine 131 isotope and even Cesium 137, indicating some deterioration of the fuel rods and lack of containment. The company running the plants have had repeated events of fraudulent record keeping. I'd expect perhaps 1-20 deaths as a result of this. Even the very worse nuclear accidents have not killed 1000 people. Cars and Aspirin do far more damage!
Nature still is the power to respect and fear. However we look at it, except for war, nature can be far more cruel to us than the men who fail us.
Asher
The losses in life could reach 10,000, but right now over 500 confirmed deaths and some 9,500 souls missing! 4 entire trains vanished off the map!
Now, to add to this misery, one of the nuclear reactors has had cooling systems fail. I am gratified that the people around the site have been safely evacuated. The sad fact is that some folk at the plant have been reported to have radiation sickness. Even in this terrible circumstance, it's at least a relief that the metal containment has held and the control rods have been successfully inserted stopping the reaction. Still, I have concern about detection of small amounts of Iodine 131 isotope and even Cesium 137, indicating some deterioration of the fuel rods and lack of containment. The company running the plants have had repeated events of fraudulent record keeping. I'd expect perhaps 1-20 deaths as a result of this. Even the very worse nuclear accidents have not killed 1000 people. Cars and Aspirin do far more damage!
Nature still is the power to respect and fear. However we look at it, except for war, nature can be far more cruel to us than the men who fail us.
Asher