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From: ken@njitcccc.UUCP (Kenneth Ng)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Russian Nuclear Accident
Message-ID: <150@njitcccc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-May-86 10:48:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: njitcccc.150
Posted: Fri May 16 10:48:47 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 18-May-86 13:15:55 EDT
References: <228@scbhq.UUCP> <144@comp.lancs.ac.uk> <642@argon.idec.stc.co.uk> <230@prometheus.UUCP>
Organization: NJ Inst of Tech., Newark NJ
Lines: 36
Summary: Please stick to the facts

In article <230@prometheus.UUCP>, pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M Koloc) writes:
> It is the short half life that makes iodine dangerous.  Iodine
> comes from the decay of xenon
Iodine 131 comes from either a neutron absorption of Iodine 130 with
a neutron, or from decay of tellurium 131. Iodine 131 does transmute
into xenon 131, which gives off an electron and then becomes stable,
half life 12 days.
>                                        Thyroid cancers can be 
> above average for many decades beyond the date of exposure.
Where did you get these figures? 
> 
> If there would be runaway reaction and melt through (China syndrome), 
> then plutonium breeding would be a problem and the total radiation 
> would be millions of times the levels in this case of the Urkrainian 
> disaster.
A nuclear reactor is a rather finiky thing to keep operating.  Plutonium
breeding would tend not to be a problem since the reactor would have to
stay somewhat intact to keep producing plutonium.

	     In spite of the utterances to the contrary, near
> worst scenario nuclear disasters could wipe out a genetically
> viable human race.
Repeat, what information do you have to support this?  And, what
information do you have that indicates why the rest of the scientific
community is not correct.

-- 
Kenneth Ng: uucp(unreliable) ihnp4!allegra!bellcore!njitcccc!ken
	    bitnet(prefered) ken@njitcccc.bitnet

New Jersey Institute of Technology
Computerized Conferencing and Communications Center
Newark, New Jersey 07102

Vulcan jealousy: "I fail to see the logic in prefering Stan over me"
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