Prof. Richard Broinowski on his travels to Japan post-Fukushima and how the nuclear disaster is affecting the country
Listen Now Download the show by right-clicking the link.
Broinowski
In this episode, Dr. Caldicott talks with academic and author, Richard Broinowski, adjunct professor in media and communications at the University of Sydney. Broinowski, Dr. Caldicott’s brother, is also a retired Australian diplomat. After junior postings in Tokyo, Rangoon and Tehran, he was deputy chief of mission in the Australian Embassy, Manila. He has held positions as the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam (1983-85), Republic of Korea (1987-89), and to Mexico, the Central American Republics and Cuba (1994-97). Broinowski is the author of three books, with a fourth due to appear this October, on the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and its implications for Japan and the international nuclear industry. In this timely discussion, Broinowski describes his travels throughout the regions of Japan most affected by the Fukushima disaster as well as Tokyo, and how the Japanese people and government are responding to the nuclear crisis in different ways. He also touches on the U.S. relationship with North Korea toward the end of the hour.
March 11th, 2012 at 11:57 pm
One point of issue.
The half life of Iodine 131 being so short means that it is extremely radioactive.
Pound for pound if you like, this means that the governed by half life, the decay of one gram of radionuclide that has the half life of one day, will be 1000 times more radioactive than an equivalent weight of radionuclide with a half life of 1000 days.
That is how i understand it, and it is why Iodine131 is so amazingly radioactive.
Another one would be Radon222.
A small amount is extremely radioactive.
Also this is why it is so difficult to detect radionuclides with longer halflives like radio Cesium and so on.
Radioactivity in a sample does not indicate how much is in a sample alone.