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Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

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Re: Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

#11

Post by stcredzero »

fidotron wrote: post #2

Of all groups you'd hope to be able to detect and protect their staff against radiation, wouldn't the US Navy be fairly near the top of the list? Much as TEPCO may be at fault over the actual reactor the sailors being exposed unnecessarily sounds more like Naval negligence.

During the height of the Cold War, US Navy ships were equipped with a "wash down" system to enable operations after sailing through nuclear fallout. I'm surprised to learn that no means of detecting radiation in the drinking water was thought of back then. Then again, many of those systems were thought of as a way of continuing to operate for just a few weeks more. Many of those scenarios would have included the end of civilization.

Re: Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

#13

Post by ChristianMarks »

It was much worse than was reported. An online forum of nuclear engineers (I may still have the link) was the most informative source of news about the disaster at the time. EDIT: found the link. http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?s=8b5b840e5e9217...

Re: Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

#16

Post by skriticos2 »

elleferrer wrote: post #10

A failed multimillion-dollar radiation-detection system. Why didn't they have this activated? "The toxic seawater was sucked into the ship’s desalinization system, flowing out of its faucets and showers — still radioactive — and into the crew member’s bodies."

They could have sidestepped the whole issue with a simple reverse-osmosis water filter. Somehow I get the impression that they did not think the ABC (edit: CBRN) thing through.

Re: Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

#17

Post by CookWithMe »

At the TC Disrupt Europe hackathon, there was one team that build a hardware/software hack to crowdsource radioactivity data / warnings. Basically, a Geiger counter attached to your computer that sends readings to a server.

I think it was a really cool hack and one of my favorites, but it didn't go anywhere with the jury (I guess no business model and all :) ).

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/26/open-radioactivity-warning-...

http://techcrunch.com/video/open-radioactivity-warning-syste... (Video)

Re: Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

#18

Post by skriticos2 »

forktheif wrote: post #14

Wikipedia says the USS Ronald Regan has a total crew of 5,680. How statistically significant is 70 people out of 5,680 suffering serious health problems over 2.5 years? I'm guessing that most people on board were fairly young and in good health.

Radiation overdose is happy to cause you all kind of cancer 50 years down the road. Having been overexposed is really not something you want, even if you don't show symptoms so quickly. The psychological pressure on these people alone must be maddening.

Imagine waking up every day for the rest of your life and wondering if you have cancer today? Not good..

Edit: and let's not talk about the increased likelihood of disfigured offspring.

Re: Navy sailors have radiation sickness after Japan rescue

#19

Post by zequel »

This is why I wouldn't let my kids EVER enlist. The government has no regard for its enlisted. Doesn't take a genius to think our navy would be in harm's way during a RADIOACTIVE DISASTER. Reminds me of when soldiers were being electrocuted in showers in Iraq because of totally incompetent contractors wiring electricity near the showers.
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