Samurai Ethics Compel Japanese Official to Drink Water From Fukushima Reactor Buildings

[kristopher]

Japanese Official Drinks Water From Fukushima Reactor Buildings

...The water gulped down by the official, Yasuhiro Sonoda, came from the flooded basements of two reactor buildings at the plant, which was severely damaged when a tsunami struck the Japanese coast in March.

...On Monday, after gulping down half a glass of the water, Mr. Sonoda said: “Just because I drank the water does not mean that its safety has been confirmed, so there is no significance to the act. I drank it because a request had been made.”

...It is difficult to tell, Mr. Large said, how radioactive the water might have been. Some trenches at the Fukushima site, he said, showed radioactivity levels of 10,000 millisieverts per hour. “The usual nonmedical level for a human is one millisieverts per year.”

Even if the water Mr. Sonoda drank came from heavily treated remnants, assessing the level of radioactivity would be very difficult, Mr. Large said, because water is itself a shield against radioactivity. The issue would be, he said, “that if you drink the water you’re potentially providing radioactive particles a pathway into your gut system. It’s then down to how your gut system deals with it. It might ignore it and urinate it out. Or it might say ‘that’s a nice piece of cesium, I’ll store that in muscle tissue’ which is not a good thing.”

Mr. Large also recalled a very similar stunt...

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/japanese-official-drinks-water-from-fukushima-reactor-buildings/

[OffWithTheirHeads]

1. Great, we've got an Orange Boner, they get a glow in the dark Sonoda.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Reminds me of Hugh Carey (governor of NY)

When a transformer fire spread PCB’s throughout the State Office Building in Binghamton, NY, Carey (who felt it was all much ado about nothing) said, “I offer here and now to walk into Binghamton into any part of that building and swallow an entire glass of PCB’s, and then run a mile afterwards.”

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. And then what happened?

Pls. tell me someone took him up on that offer....

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. No… fraid not

Although at least one bar in town invented a new drink in his honor…

[Wilms]

6. What is the drink called?

Hari Carey? :D

[kristopher]

7. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk...

Loved it.

:fistbump:

[Vogon_Glory]

5. Would That Pro-Fracking Politicos Here in the US Follow Mr Sonada's Example! n/t