Radioactive import cars from Japan

[Rodge]

I'm thinking Hyundai are way to go. Nothing wrong with their cars in terms of design and efficiency either. 5 year warranty too.

[JG34JA]

Thank you to everyone who has replied.
Shortly after the accident, I found the Fairewinds site, run by a former nuclear engineer. They provide updates where they talk in layman's terms on Fukushima (not hard primary data, I admit), but may be worth a view:

http://fairewinds.org/fukushima

[2011G6E]

I would lay money that if you went out to your dinki-di Aussie Falcon or Commodore and ran a gieger counter over it, you would find higher than normal background levels of radiation present.

[mik]

Originally Posted by JG34JA

Thank you to everyone who has replied.
Shortly after the accident, I found the Fairewinds site, run by a former nuclear engineer. They provide updates where they talk in layman's terms on Fukushima (not hard primary data, I admit), but may be worth a view:

http://fairewinds.org/fukushima

this old fella is a pretty good talker and explains it well(and cluey), reminds me of Michio Kaku, thanks for the link.

[pottery beige]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

I would lay money that if you went out to your dinki-di Aussie Falcon or Commodore and ran a gieger counter over it, you would find higher than normal background levels of radiation present.

I'll take your money..

[AndrewR_AUII]

Originally Posted by pottery beige

I'll take your money..

So would I...a geiger counter isn't sensitive or specific enough.

When the accident happened somebody at work (I'm the Radiation Safety Officer) was concerned that their new japanese car may have been contaminated. Geiger counter didn't show anything, neither did a hand-held Alpha counter. You would need some pretty sophisticated lab gear to be able to measure it.

[pottery beige]

millisierverts.

http://rense.com/general94/undertnd.htm

radiation department strapped a silly little thing to our hard hats to keep an eye on our milli count..

me.. radiation.. explains a lot..

[Shonky.]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

...something like 59 people died from direct effects

serious?

how many liquidators were there?

[Bossxr8]

One of the little know facts about Chernobyl was that the man who was in charge of the plant, who was basically responsible for the whole disaster by continually shrugging off the warnings of the workers, because he didn't think the high readings they were getting could be accurate, copped a massive dose of radiation many times what people believed to be lethal, and he survived to live at least another decade or so. And it was the second time in his life he had copped a massive radiation dose.

Just goes to show that the lethality of nuclear radiation may not be as bad as some believe. I watched a documentry on Chernobyl a couple of years ago and the death toll was 43, all workers who were first on scene. Many at the time believed millions would die from it, but didn't happen. They tested radiation levels around the Chernobyl area a few years ago and it was normal.

At the time Russian medical experts made pregnant women have abortions because it was thought the babies would be deformed. But they interviewed one woman who resisted their inference that she have an abortion and she had a perfectly healthy baby, as did others. Also cancer rates of people living in the area at the time were no different from global averages. So it was not the worldwide mega disaster it was portrayed as.

I don't think any Japanese cars would have any more than tiny levels of radiation, not enough to make you sick.

[roberts]

have you heard of this new toyota 86 hairdressers car very roadio active I heard

[Bundy]

Originally Posted by bruceynz

Hello,

I am currently living in Tokyo, the levels here spiked during the incident and there have been some places that have showed higher levels of rads than others, its is like smoke when it went over, when it rained it bought it down on the city, when it rains the stuff pools like when you see pollon in the water when it rains. Up around Fukashima and anyone driving through it would get all over and through the car, in the air vents, upholstery, caught in filters, all around the engine etc. In some cases these levels would be very low, others could be of concern, the back ground radiation levels and the amount you get from a chest xray or air travel could easily exceed what is in the car, no radiation is good for humans but its part of life, some of those people around Fukashima are in for a long haul, the gov acted faster than what the Russian's did but still lots of rads got out. I suspect that it is only going to effect used imported cars from Japan. New cars should be fine. The Japs are a pretty switched on crowd, although not perfect, there has been concerns on how the plant was run and that maybe this disaster did not need to happen, well hind sight is 20/20 but they have to deal with what is happening now. The disaster is far from over, there are pools with spent fuel rods, for people who don't know what "spent" means it is a fuel rod that can no longer boil water but still very hot. These rods need to cool down, so they put them in big pools of water, as long as they are not exposed to the air they are fine they just keep the water warm and slowly run out of life, this stuff takes years to run down. The spent fuel rods are now just sitting under a tarp exposed to the elements since the top has blown off the building, if another quake happens or a typhoon does something nasty and that pool empties down to expose the fuel rods you can get a nuclear fire, if that happens it is bad news for the world!!! These rods will emit huge amounts of rads into the atmosphere possibly and it is not exactly known the whole of the northern hemisphere could be contaminated. Will be more to worry about than a few rads on a car. Anyway I am no nuclear physicists just an average jo who has been reading since it is in the country I live.

Go the mighty Falcon!

Thanks
Bruce

You maybe right on with most of what you've said, be that as it may, I don't see too many people using their daily chest x-ray machine to get to and from work and the shops.

[seedywagon]

If the cars have been washed thoroughly there shouldn't be any great risks, once the fallout has been removed, you remove the radiation source altogether. I would say if there is raised levels of radiation, it would probably be mostly on the tyres that roll on contaminated ground.