Why is Fukushima nuclear crisis so threatening?

[Drakkith]

There are more radioactive materials such as coolant, structure and fuel material.
It's more radioactive than nuclear weapon in amount.

I think after 140 posts the original question has been thoroughly answered.

 

[Borek]

Does the dangerous radioactive cesium form inert compounds as well?

In general, chemistry of the radioactive isotopes is not different from the chemistry of the non-radioactive ones.

 

[luben]

If Fukushima incident is not very threatening, would it be safe to live in tokyo (several hundreds km away)? I wonder if there will be some long term effects just like the nuclear remains in chernobyl...

 

[etudiant]

If Fukushima incident is not very threatening, would it be safe to live in tokyo (several hundreds km away)? I wonder if there will be some long term effects just like the nuclear remains in chernobyl...

Afaik, there are several well settled areas on Earth where background radiation is comfortably above that needed to give a 20 mSiv/yr dose. Deleterious effects have not been documented in those cases, either short or long term.
So there is a real measure of hype in the current Fukushima coverage.
My guess is that the risks of living in Tokyo, where a large earthquake is reasonably probable within the next three decades, is not materially altered by the contamination from Fukushima.

 

[jim hardy]

Mother Nature built a naturally occurring radioactive isotopoe, C14, into our DNA for some reason.

See Asimov's "At Closest Range"

 

[r-j]

Afaik, there are several well settled areas on Earth where background radiation is comfortably above that needed to give a 20 mSiv/yr dose.

Where are these places? Is the radiation from cesium?

 

[r-j]

Never you mind, I found it.

http://sums.academia.edu/Mortazavi/...f_the_problem_and_the_need_for_future_studies

 

[etudiant]

Never you mind, I found it.

http://sums.academia.edu/Mortazavi/...f_the_problem_and_the_need_for_future_studies

Ramsar in Iran is the poster child for high radiation sites, but there are similar situations in China, India and Brazil. These all involve large areas, not point sources. Afaik, the radioactivity driver is usually thorium bearing minerals, not cesium, whose short half life makes it decay in a blink of an eye geologically speaking.