Watchhttp://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/80539.html
Neutron beam observed 13 times at crippled Fukushima nuke plant
TOKYO, March 23, Kyodo
Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday it has observed a neutron beam, a kind of radioactive ray, 13 times on the premises of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after it was crippled by the massive March 11 quake-tsunami disaster.
TEPCO, the operator of the nuclear plant, said the neutron beam measured about 1.5 kilometers southwest of the plant's No. 1 and 2 reactors over three days from March 13 and is equivalent to 0.01 to 0.02 microsieverts per hour and that this is not a dangerous level.
The utility firm said it will measure uranium and plutonium, which could emit a neutron beam, as well.
In the 1999 criticality accident at a nuclear fuel processing plant run by JCO Co. in Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, uranium broke apart continually in nuclear fission, causing a massive amount of neutron beams.
In the latest case at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, such a criticality accident has yet to happen.
But the measured neutron beam may be evidence that uranium and plutonium leaked from the plant's nuclear reactors and spent nuclear fuels have discharged a small amount of neutron beams through nuclear fission.
==Kyodo
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Can someone explain why there is so much handwringing about Fukushima? Meaning, I don't understand what the worst case scenario is supposed to be. Some radioactive pollution gets in the air, water, and food. So what? How is this any different than the billions of other pollutants we breathe, drink, and eat every day.
Between cell phones, WiFi, airport body scanners, MRIs for back problems, solar eruptions, etc. etc. etc. what is the big frickin deal?
Saturated fat soaked dinners at Applebee's and stuffed crust Pizza Hut pizza is killing Americans faster than any mysterious radiation.
Even if the problem is future "cancer" in Japan, how the hell could you even pinpoint the cause. The Japanese huff down cigarrettes at a such an astonishing rate that the entire country operates in an eternal blue haze.
Mercury in seafood and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene in our drinking water from fracking, what the hell is the big deal with a meltdown at Fukushima?
This "neutron beam" article is typical of the sensationalistic garbage being spewed forth by the media. Neutron beams sound cool to me. Am I supposed to be scared or something? I say, "Bring on the Neutron Beams!" We can build a new disco over the Fukushima plant and dance the night away.