What can the air in Seattle tell us about the Fukushima nuclear reactors?

Science is a wonderful thing. Not only does it give us fun gadgets and fascinating theories, but it also allows us to draw highly-accurate conclusions about events happening far, far away. Since the earthquake in Japan, a team at the University of Washington at Seattle has been testing air filters from university buildings for radioactive particles. Their results have allowed them to gauge exactly where the real threat comes from Fukushima Diachi. Even though, they are approximately 4800 miles apart.

The first comes from the amount of iodine-131 and tellurium-132 which are both short-lived with half lives of 8 and 3 days respectively. That indicates that they must have come from fuel rods that were recently active rather than from spent fuel...

Finally, there are a huge number of possible breakdown products from nuclear fission in a reactor and yet the Seattle team found evidence of only three fission product elements--iodine, cesium and tellurium. "This points to a specifific process of release into the atmosphere," they say.

Cesium Iodide is highly soluble in water. So these guys speculate that what they're seeing is the result of contaminated steam being released into the atmosphere.

16% of USA Radiation Monitors Offline for Japan Nuclear Crisis

So far, the nuclear crisis in Japan has posed little threat to the shores of the United States. While traces of radiation have been detected, carried by the winds, none have neared life-threatening or even health-threatening levels. But the disaster has showed up something important - the American radiation-monitoring system may not be adequate for our own disaster. 16% of all detectors were offline for the disaster.

In California, home to two seaside nuclear plants located close to earthquake fault lines, federal officials said four of the 11 stationary monitors were offline for repairs or maintenance last week. The Environmental Protection Agency did not immediately say why the monitors were inoperable, but did not fix them until several days after low levels of radiation began drifting toward the mainland U.S.

About 20 monitors out of 124 nationwide were out of service earlier this week, including units in Harlingen, Tex. and Buffalo, N.Y. on Friday, according to the EPA.

While the failure rate is scary to say the least - especially in an age where we fear dirty bombs and/or suitcase nukes - this served as a good test of the system. Now, we have a chance to fix the problem, rather than letting the problems languish for lack of attention.

Why is nuclear hysteria on the rise in Japan...

...even as the risk of meltdown is falling? New Scientist has the scoop and it proves yet again that it's not the problem you expect that gets you - it's the one that you didn't realize was coming. Or the one caused by a complex series of unlikely events.

The pools are housed on the top floors of the reactor buildings. Spent fuel rods are transferred to them as soon as they come out of the reactor itself, and are kept under water to cool them down and trap the radioactive material within them. Once they have cooled down enough, the rods are then transferred to outdoor pools for long-term storage.

It is the pools inside the reactor buildings that are causing the problem. Two of the reactor buildings - 1 and 3 - have lost parts of their roofs, thanks to the hydrogen explosions that have taken place over the last few days. While these explosions apparently did not damage the reactors within, they have left the pools exposed to the outside air.