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Originally Posted by martyh
not many according to this ,the Irish sea is far from being the most radioactive in the world
and you can verify that info by clicking the numbers which will direct you to the reports that info is taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Sea#Radioactivity |
I notice you didn't quote this part:
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As an example of this profile, discharges of plutonium (specifically 241Pu) peaked in 1973 at 2,755TBq[18] falling to 8.1 TBq by 2004.[19] Improvements in the treatment of waste in 1985 and 1994 resulted in further reductions in radioactive waste discharge although the subsequent processing of a backlog resulted in increased discharges of certain types of radioactive waste. Discharges of technetium in particular rose from 6.1 TBq in 1993 to a peak of 192TBq in 1995 before dropping back to 14TBq in 2004.[18][19] In total 22PBq of 241Pu was discharged over the period 1952 to 1998.[20] Current rates of discharge for many radionuclides are at least 100 times lower than they were in the 1970s.[21]
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Although they have cleaned up their act now, there are still many people who may be now (or in the future), suffereing illnesses caused by the radiation.
---------- Post added at 11:04 ---------- Previous post was at 11:00 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by heero_yuy
Meanwhile back in the real world, if there was ever a magnitude 9 earthquake in this country a few thousand deaths from the remote possibility of a radiation leak would be dwarfed by the hundreds of thousands or millions killed in collapsing buildings and the consequent food riots by the collapse of the infrastructure.
Quoting Chernobyl as a risk factor is not really relevant as it was a faulty design being run experimentally outside it's own poor limits. Even then as about the worst accident you could have with the core fully molten and exposed, relatively few people will die as a consequence compared to say the thousands that die every year, year on year, in mining, oil and gas exploration or on the roads.
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Yes 1000's of people would be killed by a magnitude 9 earthquake in a city in the UK. But then once the clear up had been carried out, things would gradually get back to normal. But, radioactive contamination frm a nuclear accident would last for many years, possibly contaminating 100's of square miles.