Radioactive Meat Circulating in Japanese Market

Wal Meat

this happens not just in America.

That is exactly what I have been watching out for. I am slowly weening myself off of meat altogether because I do not trust our government to look out for my health.

Actually GRC54, you got a couple of misconceptions in your response. Per the rate of radiation exposure in account to employment, airline pilots receive the largest amount of radiation exposure through their job over their lifetime in the US. A single continental flight (say New York to LA) will expose everyone on the airplane to more radiation than a typical radiation worker in a nuclear power plant will get over the course of an entire year. It is important to note, that this is in the course of a plants NORMAL operation. Obviously what occurred in Japan wasn't a normal event, resulting in serious long term repercussions.

There are a lot of naturally occurring sources of radiation that you will come into contact on a normal basis.

It is also important to recognize that certain fruits and veggies will result in a larger exposure to radiation. For examples, bananas are loaded with naturally occurring potassium isotopes that are radioactive. It is enough that during the course of full body dose scanning, a diet heavy in bananas can cause the indication of internal radiation contamination.

I know all that you stated. I am a retired engineer that was studying for a nuclear license to work at a nuke in my state. I generated power and what my comment was is to be more fiction about working at a nuke, unless the maint crew didn't get rid of the contaminated waste properly.
What I'm saying and you probably didn't get it is that when they fail they fail big time and selling contaminated meat with more radiation than acceptable will kill you and this is for profit by the ones who are selling the meat.
So would you eat meat, fish or veggies that was exposed to 100 times the normal radiation so someone can profit from it?

I've always wanted to talk one on one with an engineer as I am entering the field rather soon. I am a forth year mechanical engineering student. Prior to that, I served for 6 years in the navy as a nuclear machinist mate and qualified on the S8G (submarine) power plant and the A4W (surface carrier) systems.

I find that most people have a very poor understanding of what "radiation" actually is and how it affects things. For example, you can be exposed to a lot of it, assuming it is the right kind of radiation. Most Americans only really understand nuclear power from Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and the Fuki events. All three of these events are very different and must be understood as such.

Chernobyl occurred due to various and serious design and operational problems, inherent in the Soviet system. Simply put, a Chernobyl event, following the same conditions is physically impossible in a Western power plant. Food contamination was a serious problem, leading to deaths across the Soviet Union due to the government's attempt to dilute the contaminated food stock across the country.

Three Mile Island, while a very serious event, showed very clearly that the Western design system is simply better at dealing with catastrophic events. Furthermore, very clear training changes and regulatory overhauls have ensured that an event like Three Mile Island is very unlikely to occur again. Basically operators were confused and trusted the wrong instruments during the casualty. Even performing the wrong actions, the plant design prevent extensive contamination despite a melt down.

Fuki...is basically a mix of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. What I mean is despite the design improvements over a Breeder style reactor, very poor design choices were made by the Japanese company and government that led to the casualty. The sea wall was obviously inadequate, but there were further issues. All the emergency power generating equipment and their associated power supplies were located in the basement of the facility. When the sea wall was compromised the various back up systems failed. Westinghouse, which design the power plant, warned of this problem. Furthermore, as a result of the plants location and the unique Japanese power system, the island is broken into two separate electrical grids with different operating characteristics. This was why emergency power was not available from outside local sources.

Whether you realize this or not, your food is already exposed to radiation. Also, the term "normal" can be extremely confusing. There are numerous sites around the US where radiation levels 1000 times the national normal is in fact the local normal without long term biological consequences. Just being exposed to radiation does not mean that a food supply is contaminated. If that were the case, we could never eat any food as its all a product of radiation from the sun.

Engineering is a great field to get into and it served me well for many years. To that I say good luck on your choice of fields. and thank you for serving our country as well. I'm am well aware of the radiation and types that all three plants produced, that we are exposed to radiation every day as well. What I'm saying is this if someone sells beef or any product with abnormally high radiation doses then they are not only putting the public at risk but are doing so for the almighty profit.
So I hope this cleared up some confusion and take my advice since you worked with nuclear reactors as a machinist in the navy, these plants are old as they were built in the 60's and 70's and have far exceeded their life expectancy. One little mistake can cost you and lots of others their life, maybe not right away but eventually it will. Mistakes will happen as we are only human and the machines are only as good as we are.
So good luck.

They weren't built in the 60's and 70's. The A4W platform I worked on was built in the early 80's. None of them have exceeded their life expectancies. The nuclear boats that have been retired have done so for reasons not related to their propulsion plant. Furthermore, despite the large number of nuclear vessels run by nuclear power, zero boats have been lost due to their propulsion systems. The Scorpion was lost due to the lack of moisture separators in their air lines; the Thresher due to bad torpedoes.

This is not to say that I haven't lost collegues or been hurt in a nuclear propulsion plant...because I have. But the injuries I have experienced and the co-workers I have lost have not been due to nuclear power alone. In any industrial setting there are clear chances for injuries or accidents. The level of safety and situational awareness in a nuclear plant is far higher than what one will experience in any other industrial setting.