Michio Kaku Concludes: Japan Recovery To Be Measured In Centuries

60 minutes (AU) interviews Mitchio Kaku, and examines the recent conditions in Japan. Many families are living homeless, and in radioactive conditions. Fukushima is juxtaposed with Chernobyl as the 60 minutes team visits both locations in an attempt to predict Japan's future.



(Source - And Video)

reply to post by v1rtu0s0


They're all blind! The oceans are dying. Nuclear Reactors are blowing. To tell ya the truth I think we are beyond any kind of salvage operation here. Greed and profit at the expense of humanity and nature have brought this about.

Pray for a miracle because we are gonna need one.

ps While all this is happening mankind is still blowing eachother up because of politics. I give up. I'm just gonna strum Bob Marley songs on my guitar til the Kingdom Come!

As much as I like Dr Kaku ... thats just plain retarded. Japan has recovered from much worse (does WWII ring any bells?) and as much as I respect Kaku's knowledge about physics, he's a moron when it comes to all things nuclear. I remeber his hyperventilations when Cassini was launched and how "positive" he was that it was going to come crashing back to earth, crack its nuclear RTG opean and kill 100,000 people.

I dont know why perfectly reasonable people lose thier minds when the word "nuclear" comes up.

reply to post by SirMike

Hi Sir,

Not sure on the figures, but, the nuclear radiation from the two atomic bombs detonated over Japan in the 40's is tiny by comparison to what has, is, and will come from the debilitated Fukushima power station. I'm fairly sure some figures were offered in one of the other threads a while back to support this view.

With Cassini there was always a chance, even the slightest, that it may have crashed.. it didn't, so no biggie.

Personally I like the way Mr Kaku explains things for the mass population to understand.. we need more of that.

Originally posted by SirMike
As much as I like Dr Kaku ... thats just plain retarded. Japan has recovered from much worse (does WWII ring any bells?) and as much as I respect Kaku's knowledge about physics, he's a moron when it comes to all things nuclear.

I have similar feeling about Kaku, I like him but I don't trust what he says about nuclear stuff, I trust Arnie Gunderson pretty much.

But I'm not even sure Kaku said what's in the title. I just watched the video and the show says that but Kaku is interviewed saying other things. And to put it in context, they are basically suggesting that the entire area around Fukushima may become a permanent scar in a forbidden zone much like Chernobyl is, and that could be in place for centuries, and I can't argue with that. It doesn't mean all of Japan is doomed.

But I don't see many people suggesting that Fukushima site won't end up like the Chernobyl site, so if you believe that will happen, then whatever economy was in the evacuated area which won't be reinhabited for centuries is not going to recover in those areas because they can't be re-inhabited, so that was the point. It doesn't mean they can't eventually rebuild somewhere else, though it's not like Japan is so big it can afford to lose that much real estate.

Originally posted by Tayesin
Not sure on the figures, but, the nuclear radiation from the two atomic bombs detonated over Japan in the 40's is tiny by comparison to what has, is, and will come from the debilitated Fukushima power station. I'm fairly sure some figures were offered in one of the other threads a while back to support this view.

What's amazing is how many people survived the atomic blasts and are still alive today. Far fewer got cancer from the radiation than we expected, and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki are re-inhabited today.

I don't think anywhere near Fukushima will be inhabited a century later, as is expected to be the case at Chernobyl. But it will take a long time for as many people to die from the Fukushima radiation as died from the atomic bombs. It could happen someday though, and many of the deaths could be spread out all over the globe in such a random fashion that it will be difficult to trace the cause of death back to Fukushima. In fact there's some debate along those lines already about how many dearths have actually been caused by Chernobyl.

Expert Says Millions Will Die From Japan Radiation


She is a slight bit paranoid in terms of what to avoid, specifically ALL European food?? I mean hey, in a perfect world that is probably a good idea, but I think most European food must be a manageable risk at worst. I mean, lots of people live and eat there...

She has a lot of other great info though. Quite a potent rundown of lots of relevant stuff.

Pretty much am done with these supposed "experts" and intellectual elitists at this point.

The doc seemed to belittle the situation initially, when I knew it was very severe. Now he seems to be sensationalising the event, where I simply think it's still...very severe.

I'm expecting 1-10 million to die out from this over the next couple of decades.

That's horrible, but life will go on.

It seems there will be a dead zone around the site, but I don't think the whole of Japan will be within this area.

Originally posted by SirMike
As much as I like Dr Kaku ... thats just plain retarded. Japan has recovered from much worse (does WWII ring any bells?) and as much as I respect Kaku's knowledge about physics, he's a moron when it comes to all things nuclear. I remeber his hyperventilations when Cassini was launched and how "positive" he was that it was going to come crashing back to earth, crack its nuclear RTG opean and kill 100,000 people.

I dont know why perfectly reasonable people lose thier minds when the word "nuclear" comes up.

It will be 200 years before the Cesium-134 is fully decayed and no longer giving off particles. Take that into account and then check half lives (and then multiply by 5 to get total period of radioactivity) of plutonium and uranium. 10's of thousands of years before those areas will be habitable again. Strontium? Cobalt? What about these facts is "unreasonable"?

Japan, if not already, is becoming a radioactive wasteland. The quake, tsunami, nuclear accident and their effects on their economy have cause the BOJ to print record amounts of yen to prevent all out collapse. Japan will not recover from this.

Originally posted by Revolution9
reply to post by v1rtu0s0

 

They're all blind! The oceans are dying. Nuclear Reactors are blowing. To tell ya the truth I think we are beyond any kind of salvage operation here. Greed and profit at the expense of humanity and nature have brought this about.

Pray for a miracle because we are gonna need one.

ps While all this is happening mankind is still blowing eachother up because of politics. I give up. I'm just gonna strum Bob Marley songs on my guitar til the Kingdom Come!

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them can stop the time"

reply to post by Arbitrageur

Hi,

Agreed on the surivors of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I read "Black Rain" by Masuji Ibuse (spelling?) and while it was based on people's diaries it really had the ability to put the reader inplace for the Hiroshima bombing and what life was like afterwards for the survivors. Scary stuff.

I agree too that Fukushima will remain a no go zone for a very long time.. after they do whatever will have to be done to stop the present situation stretching out for far too long. Perhaps in time some population control mechanisms will come into legislation so that the country can afford to feed itself, etc.

Years back I read about one of the survivors from the clean-up crews at Chernobyl who claimed many, many thousands died during the clean-up. Numbers which do not appear in the official figures. And I note here that Japan has asked for active retirees to work in the clean-up.. with massive remuneration for their sacrifice.

The world has not seen the end of this, not by a long shot. If electronic news media is still around at the time, my grandchildren.. many years away from being born yet.. will be alive to see the longer term work done in Japan. I won't, I will long gone from the mortal coil.

As always Arbitrageur, I enjoyed reading your repsonse.