Huge 8.9 quake plus tsunami - Japan

"According to the Japanese foreign ministry, 128 countries and 33 international organizations have offered assistance."

TGT If that is working then that means you are OK with a few massive failures.

That's been the problem with the reporting. Evidently knowing the difference between milli and micro is not a requirement for being a reporter or editor.

If you have some functional science literacy, and you're on of the rare science literates who isn't living out at the intersection of Autism Highway and Asperger Way, and you can translate scientific and engineering information into clear prose at a 6th grade reading level, you can write your own ticket...

To put dose rate (radiation intensity) verses dose (radiation absorbed) into perspective...

Say that you get a medical chest x-ray...

In order to expose the very fast film to get the image, the film needs about 200 mR total (note that this is more than my average yearly dose [~125 mR] working at nukes). Since this exposure is made in a matter of 1-2 seconds, that means dose rates are 720 R/hr (720,000 mR/hr) for a 1 second exposure and 360 R/hr (360,000 mR/hr) for a 2 second exposure.

Point being... Being breifly exposed to even an extremely high dose rate (as those 'dose rates'are EXTREMELY high) does not equal bad. That's why the principles of ALARA (As Low As Reasonable Acheivable) include time, distance, and shielding.

Time exposed X dose rate = dose (I.e., less time equals less dose)

Distance because the inverse square law means that as the distance is doubled, the radiation intensity (dose rate) is quartered, etc...

Shielding because radiation intensity (dose rate) is attenuated by radiologically dense materials, thus less once it has passed through the shielding



This will explain much, and it's a pretty easy read...
http://www.drvxray.com/xray_exposure.htm

(Note, unites used are those used in the US.)

I remember a scene in a movie where they had a radiation exposure in a lab or classroom and quickly did the math to figure out who was at great risk and who was safe because they were further away. Some Manhattan project movie I think but even that seems like it is science fiction now as this stuff is far from absolute.

The criticality accident


A re-creation of the incident. The upper half of the beryllium shell is grasped by a thumbhole. The inner plutonium core (or cavity for it) is not visible.




On May 21, 1946, with seven other colleagues watching, Slotin performed an experiment that involved the creation of one of the first steps of a fission reaction by placing two half-spheres of beryllium (a neutron reflector) around a plutonium core. The experiment used the same 6.2-kilogram (13.7 lb) plutonium core that had irradiated Harry K. Daghlian, Jr., later called the "Demon core" for its role in the two accidents. Slotin grasped the upper beryllium hemisphere with his left hand through a thumb hole at the top while he maintained the separation of the half-spheres using the blade of a screwdriver with his right hand, having removed the shims normally used.[2] Using a screwdriver was not a normal part of the experimental protocol.

At 3:20 p.m., the screwdriver slipped and the upper beryllium hemisphere fell, causing a "prompt critical" reaction and a burst of hard radiation.[9] At the time, the scientists in the room observed the "blue glow" of air ionization[citation needed] and felt a "heat wave". In addition, Slotin experienced a sour taste in his mouth and an intense burning sensation in his left hand.[2] Slotin instinctively jerked his left hand upward, lifting the upper beryllium hemisphere and dropping it to the floor, ending the reaction. However, he had already been exposed to a lethal dose (around 2100 rems, or 21 Sv) of neutron and gamma radiation.[14] Slotin's radiation dose was about four times the lethal dose, equivalent to the amount that he would have been exposed to by being 1500 m (4800 ft) away from the detonation of an atomic bomb.[15]

As soon as Slotin left the building, he vomited, a common reaction from exposure to extremely intense ionizing radiation.[2] Slotin's colleagues rushed him to the hospital, but irreversible damage had already been done. His parents were informed of their son's inevitable death and a number of volunteers donated blood for transfusions, but the efforts proved futile.[2] Louis Slotin died nine days later on May 30,[16] in the presence of his parents. He was buried in Winnipeg on June 2, 1946.[2]

At first, the incident was classified and not made known even within the laboratory; Robert Oppenheimer and other colleagues later reported severe emotional distress at having to carry on with normal work and social activities while they secretly knew that their colleague lay dying.

The core involved was subject to a number of experiments shortly after the end of the war and was used in the ABLE detonation, during the Crossroads series of nuclear weapon testing. Slotin's experiment was set to be the last conducted before the core's detonation and was intended to be the final demonstration of its ability to go critical.[15]

The accident ended all hands-on critical assembly work at Los Alamos. Future criticality testing of fissile cores was done with special remotely controlled machines, such as the "Godiva" series, with the operator located a safe distance away in case of accidents.

With all sincerity, I'd be grateful if you'd elaborate on this. What sorts of job positions are you thinking of?