Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Question of the Day

Another curiosity for which I'm sure there's a good answer--but how would you search for it?

We've seen pictures of the workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear plant who wear protective gear while on the job. While radiation levels are extremely high, this specialized clothing and other articles do afford some protection.

But how do they remove their protective layers--which are surely hot with radiation--without contaminating themselves during the removal process?
Removing Protective Gear at the San Onofre Nuclear Generator

Is it the same process as shown above? Wouldn't that be the most hazardous part of the Fukushima job?

Try this search. How do they remove those garments? What keywords do you need?

2 comments:

JoAnn Bush said...

Hello,

I think the answer to this question can be found at

http://www.fukushimafew.com/2011/04/fukushima-worker-refuses-to-reveal-own-radiation-exposure-level/

I used Google. Keyword string was Fukushima ~remove radioactive protective ~clothing.

It seems that when the volunteers remove their protective clothing and while still in their underwear, they remove the remaining radioactive substances from their bodies. I'm still looking to see how they remove the radioactive substances. I'm betting they shower and scrub it off.

http://www.allaboutbamboo.com/ said...

Supplying the body with lots of "stable iodide" can prevent the thyroid from taking in the radioactive version, which can cause thyroid cancer, says Jonathan Links, professor of environmental health sciences at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Also,potassium iodide doesn't reduce the risk of other kinds of radiation-related cancer.

"You have to take potassium iodide before or at the beginning of the exposure and take it for the duration," Links says. "You can't just pop one pill."