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Peter1469
12-25-2013, 06:51 AM
Crew of the USS Ronald Reagan and Radiation Sickness (http://www.ibtimes.com/uss-ronald-reagan-crew-members-sick-cancer-three-years-after-fukushima-contamination-photos-1519170)

A little known story.


Nearly three years after the destruction of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, at least 70 U.S. Navy sailors who participated in relief efforts after the accident have been suffering from radiation sickness and even cancer as the crew of the USS Ronald Reagan was exposed to fallout.



“I was standing on the flight deck, and we felt this warm gust of air, and, suddenly, it was snowing,” sailor Lindsay Cooper told the New York Post (http://nypost.com/2013/12/22/70-navy-sailors-left-sickened-by-radiation-after-japan-rescue/) in an interview published Monday. The metallic-tasting snow was caused by the freezing Pacific air that mixed with the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima power plant that was wrecked in the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.


Fukushima was the world's worst nuclear disaster since the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine in 1986. Japanese utility crews are still struggling to contain radioactive water leaking from the plant into the Pacific Ocean. It has been estimated that some 300 tons of toxic water enter the ocean each day.
“We joked about it: ‘Hey, it’s radioactive snow!’ ” Cooper said. “I took pictures and video.”

Ravi
12-25-2013, 07:04 AM
Sad. And given the name of the ship, ironic.

Peter1469
12-25-2013, 07:05 AM
Sad. And given the name of the ship, ironic.

Why is it ironic?

Ravi
12-25-2013, 07:17 AM
Ronnie was a huge supporter of nuclear power and a huge quasher of solar power.

Peter1469
12-25-2013, 07:20 AM
Ronnie was a huge supporter of nuclear power and a huge quasher of solar power.

Oh.

I find it hard to believe that a nuclear powered aircraft carrier has no way to effectively detect radiation.


“We were probably floating in contaminated water without knowing it for a day and a half before we got hit by that plume,” said Cooper.


By the time the Reagan's officers found out it was contaminated, the radioactive cloud had spread too far to get away.


“And then we couldn’t go anywhere. Japan didn’t want us in port, Korea didn’t want us, Guam turned us away. We floated in the water for two and a half months,” until Thailand took them in, she said.

Max Rockatansky
12-25-2013, 08:04 AM
Oh.

I find it hard to believe that a nuclear powered aircraft carrier has no way to effectively detect radiation.

Me too. Plus they have systems to wash down the flight deck with sprinklers while crew members remain below decks. I'm guessing they did that then followed up with the manual scrub down afterward.

This link goes into more detail about the complaints: http://nypost.com/2013/12/22/70-navy-sailors-left-sickened-by-radiation-after-japan-rescue/

The fallout of those four days spent off the Fukushima coast has been tragic to many of the 5,000 sailors who were there.At least 70 have been stricken with some form of radiation sickness, and of those, “at least half . . . are suffering from some form of cancer,” their lawyer, Paul Garner, told The Post Saturday.

“We’re seeing leukemia, testicular cancer and unremitting gynecological bleeding requiring transfusions and other intervention,” said Garner, who is representing 51 crew members suing the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the Fukushima Daiichi energy plant.

“Then you have thyroid polyps, other thyroid diseases,” added Garner, who plans to file an amended lawsuit in federal court in San Diego next month that will bring the number of plaintiffs past 70.

Senior Chief Michael Sebourn, a radiation-decontamination officer, was assigned to test the aircraft carrier for radiation.
The levels were incredibly dangerous and at one point, the radiation in the air measured 300 times higher than what was considered safe, Sebourn told The Post.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/US_Navy_110323-N-NB544-120_The_aircraft_carrier_USS_Ronald_Reagan_(CVN_76 )_conducts_a_countermeasure_wash_down_to_decontami nate_the_flight_deck_whi.jpg/640px-US_Navy_110323-N-NB544-120_The_aircraft_carrier_USS_Ronald_Reagan_(CVN_76 )_conducts_a_countermeasure_wash_down_to_decontami nate_the_flight_deck_whi.jpg
http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonian/photo/2011/03/-eb9030104c3e49db.JPG
http://www.sinaimg.cn/dy/slidenews/8_img/2013_02/646_210659_596925.jpg

Max Rockatansky
12-25-2013, 09:12 AM
http://imageshack.us/a/img41/5953/chernobyldemotivational.jpg

Peter1469
12-25-2013, 09:13 AM
http://imageshack.us/a/img41/5953/chernobyldemotivational.jpg

Wow, I guess you have to name it..... :shocked:

Max Rockatansky
12-25-2013, 10:54 AM
Wow, I guess you have to name it..... :shocked:

LOL. At that point, it would be a good idea.