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1448 Posts |
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Hope, BC
Canada
7094 Posts |
Posted - 04/30/2012 : 8:41 PM
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Unbelievable. I wonder if any of these items that wash up on shore should be checked for radioactivity. I don't know if it would deminish after its trip across the ocean or not.
I bet the guy that owns the Harley was shocked (if alive) when he got the call his bike was found in Canada lol. |
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28 Posts |
Posted - 04/30/2012 : 9:03 PM
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I heard that the likelihood of any of the debris being radioactive is slim to none. The "meltdown" occurred well after the stuff was washed out to sea.
That's what I heard on the radio the other day FWIW. |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 09:58 AM
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| who's going to help pay for the clean up of 1.5 million tons of expected debris on our shorelines? |
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Vancouver
1808 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 11:10 AM
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A story behind this is that I'm sure this thing washed up in Naikoon Park. One way the park is promoted is that it is a prime opportunity to find things washed up on the beach.
However, once you get there, you find people such as the "hero" in this story patrol the entire beach by ATV after every high tide. This means you don't have a chance of finding anything worth keeping. Making this even worse is that depending on where they drive, most of this ATV patrolling is illegal. But no one does anything about it. Perhaps this is why the stories about this motorcycle avoid specifying exactly where it was found. |
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Vancouver
1808 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 11:17 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by boatswamper
I heard that the likelihood of any of the debris being radioactive is slim to none. The "meltdown" occurred well after the stuff was washed out to sea.
That's what I heard on the radio the other day FWIW.
Yes, all sorts of things have been said to dismiss fears about the dangers resulting from this disaster. More careful checking indicates the reactors suffered damage during the quake itself, and may have spilled right away. In addition, the migration of the debris certainly did not outpace the airborne radioactivity, since, after all, it was detected here.
I wouldn't be surprised if the "authorities" are deliberately understating the radioactivity risk of the debris, just as they incorrectly claimed no one in North America was affected by the Chernobyl plume.
It would be interesting to get a gieger counter and check air filters for radioactivity. |
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Richmond, BC
Canada
2440 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 2:42 PM
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The spent-rod storage containment ponds remain at a high radioactive level and there has been continued high concentrations of cessium released into the atmosphere. The media could report on this every day if they so desired but they have moved on to other news. Nobody can get close enough to determine if a river has developed beneath the reactors. Unfortunately there is no effort being made to contain the disaster by cement encasing as nobody can get near enough without exposure issues.
Maybe someone has a better update, but yeah I would say the North American Govts are downplaying our risk because there is F-all we can do about it. Basically you're asking the Japanese govt to force enlistment of volunteers to get the encasing done and even then they don't know about the tidal river under the plant. Not sure there would be many takers on that.
sGrant would be correct in saying that the flotsam would not have drifted far enough to sea to escape contamination immediately following the disaster. I would be pretty damn careful around any large items washing ashore.FWIW |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13445 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 6:38 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by pmicheals
.....sGrant would be correct in saying that the flotsam would not have drifted far enough to sea to escape contamination immediately following the disaster. I would be pretty damn careful around any large items washing ashore.FWIW
Amen. Scary.
How is anyone going to ever able to get near enough those things to determine how bad they are. What they need is special robots with lead bodies and supercharged legs to walk in there, assess, and be the means to encase or deal whatever is the best way to do it.
K |
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Vancouver
1808 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 8:41 PM
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| People need only approach this stuff with geiger counters for the first while to see whether it is radioactive. It's probably not, and it should have had a good washing in transit. But I think it's dumb not to check. |
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359 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 8:49 PM
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| I recently bought a new car that's made in Japan... if you want to be concerned about radioactivity you should start the next time you get into a Toyota or Honda |
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Hope, BC
Canada
7094 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 9:41 PM
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On a good note:
Harley Davidson is now working through a local distributor on Vancouver Island to return and restore the bike, a 2004 Night Train, to Yokoyama, who also lost his house as a result of the tsunami and is living in temporary housing. |
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Kamloops, B.C.
Canada
157 Posts |
Posted - 05/01/2012 : 11:40 PM
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| Lets not forgot that all this debris is a memorial to the thousands who died. Not a treasure hunt. |
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Victoria, BC
Canada
415 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2012 : 07:47 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by DoubleE Alpinist
I recently bought a new car that's made in Japan... if you want to be concerned about radioactivity you should start the next time you get into a Toyota or Honda
Doubtful.
Out of at least ten worldwide Honda production plants, three are in Japan. If the Honda you see out on the road here was not made in Alliston Ontario, then it came in from Ohio. Same for everyone else... Chevys sold in India are not from Detroit.
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Victoria, BC
Canada
415 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2012 : 07:54 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by AcesHigh
On a good note:
Harley Davidson is now working through a local distributor on Vancouver Island to return and restore the bike, a 2004 Night Train, to Yokoyama, who also lost his house as a result of the tsunami and is living in temporary housing.
Really is a great story. HD here getting in touch with HD Japan and orchestrating the return of the battered bike to its rightful owner. Once it gets back there it will be fully restored by HD Japan and presented back to him. Such a tiny little blip in context of what happened there, but such a powerful act of good faith.
Also, what are the chances of having a vehicle wash up here from Japan, ever ever again?! |
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Newton, bc
Canada
282 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2012 : 08:17 AM
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Also, what are the chances of having a vehicle wash up here from Japan, ever ever again?!
In the next while, pretty good. Also some radioactive food that wildlife like BEARS are going to eat. That is when the s%#t is going to hit the fan as there offspring mutates into atomic beasts. |
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359 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2012 : 08:40 AM
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quote:
Doubtful.
Out of at least ten worldwide Honda production plants, three are in Japan. If the Honda you see out on the road here was not made in Alliston Ontario, then it came in from Ohio. Same for everyone else... Chevys sold in India are not from Detroit.
Regardless of the specific details, my point is that components or parts are still manufactured in Japan. I'm not saying anyone should be worried about a specific brand or even a particular segment of Japanese imports, I'm implying people shouldn't be excessively concerned about tsunami debris in particular. The implications seems to be that the debris is more radioactive since the debris was physically swept away by the wave. |
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canine loving, machete-toting bushwhacking lake seeker, Indiana Jones hat-wearing off-road 4x4 guru
Surrey Hole, BC
Canada
6773 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2012 : 4:34 PM
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That bike will be better than it ever was, since saltwater ruins all the engine and other metal components, such as brakes and all wiring.
may as well gie him a new bike, as 90% of the bike needs to be replaced by used or new parts.
Be fun story to follow, some TV crew is prolly looking at documenting it already.
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Edited by - Aqua Terra on 05/02/2012 4:48 PM |
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Happy go lucky, plaid wearin, postholin, safeway gaitor sportin, old-school film shootin, giver of many regards
Abbotsford, B.C.
Canada
13445 Posts |
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Vancouver, BC
Canada
2659 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2012 : 11:34 PM
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/05/01/bc-tsunami-motorcycle-owner.html
Cool that they found the owner. I was in Japan a month after the earthquake/tsunami and breakfast tv was still dominated by stories around the destruction. The temporary housing, the volunteer camps for feeding the displaced, the work of the SPCA rounding up stray pets, fish-bearing streams and rice paddies destroyed by salt water. I wonder how much airtime this motorcycle story is getting in Miyagi... |
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3022 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2012 : 11:22 AM
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Watching some recent footage of the anniversary, I was amazed how slow people were moving when the water was rising, nerly everyone-over confident about their tsunami defenses.
In many frames people were there one moment, a half minute later gone!
Some people clinging on&off to radio towers for 18 hours.
The mess covering their agricultural fields must be mind numbing.
I hope their landscape doesn't end up like chernobyl's no-mans-land, radioactive nature. |
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Victoria, BC
Canada
415 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2012 : 11:39 AM
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I heard on the new recently that the owner has declined to have the bike returned to Japan. Whether or not this remains the case I can't say, but if it's true there's two possible reasons. Firstly, the Japanese are an extremely proud and respectful people so it wouldn't surprise me if he percieved this as a "handout". Secondly this fellow is still living in temporary housing after losing everything, including family members, so maybe he knows he wouldn't have room for it, maybe it's too painful a memory, who knows.
quote:
Originally posted by troutbreath
...what are the chances of having a vehicle wash up here from Japan, ever ever again?!
In the next while, pretty good. Also some radioactive food that wildlife like BEARS are going to eat. That is when the s%#t is going to hit the fan as there offspring mutates into atomic beasts.
I am under the impression that things like cars and trucks will find their way to the bottom pretty darned quick, just based on their weight alone, and the only reason that bike made it here is the unbelievable fluke that it stayed in a floating container the whole time.
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Motorcycle washed up in B.C. may be Japanese tsuna
