Estimating further Nuclear Deaths in Australia from "Teething Problems"
With both major political parties and fringe minority groupings announcing their enthusiasm for Nuclear Reactors, Dumps and Submarines, let's look at how many Deaths are likely.
In a recent email I received from Queensland Senator Gerard Rennick, who was dumped by the Liberal Party and formed his own “Gerard Rennick People First Party” he announced his backing for Nuclear Power, saying:
“introduction of nuclear power will inevitably encounter teething problems”
I guess Gerard and his followers have no worries about generating High Level Nuclear Waste, because he will be backing AUKUS that commits Australia to being a Dumping Ground for UK and US Military radioactive killer sources as well as making every city in Australia a Nuclear Target.123
Photo credit.4
Our country will experience further Radiation Deaths sooner or later, unless the masses wake up, so let’s look at a few papers on the subject.
Disaster planners and Insurance Companies employ actuaries to identify risks of Death from Political Policy Changes.
Found a nice article comparing Deaths from various Nuclear scenarios.5
The authors make it abundantly clear that people exposed to High Level Radiation will have to be triaged into those Left to Die, and those where treatment is attempted.
People exposed to high levels of radiation (usually >1–2 Gy over a short period of time may develop acute radiation syndrome (ARS).
Symptoms vary according to the dose but include vomiting, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, weakness, bleeding, and redness of the skin.
In a large mass casualty setting, efficient triage of irradiated casualties is essential to identify those who have received clinically significant but not invariably lethal doses of radiation estimated at 2-Gy of whole body exposure.
These are the victims that need specialized and sometimes urgent care.
In resource scarce settings, symptomatic care is given if possible and life-sustaining measures should be withheld from casualties with non-survivable trauma, thermal burns and/or radiation exposures.
Extensive triage algorithms that emphasize fairness were recently published to guide the selection of appropriate candidates for life-sustaining care in resource- limited settings in order to maximize survivability for the overall population
Their Table is interesting. Please click to enlarge.
They mention realistic scenarios based on past examples:
Loss or Theft of a source
Nuclear Reactor Accident
Dirty Bombs
Deliberately contaminated Food Supply, I would add Water
Radioactive source intended to irradiate commuters
Improvised Nuclear Bomb.
The authors discuss various treatments but point out that:
Some victims of a large-scale event may receive doses of radiation to cause irreversible myeloablation. As discussed above, these patients will commonly have multi-organ damage.
What remains unclear is whether allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) can be a life sustaining measure in this setting.
To date, 31 patients have undergone allogeneic HCT after accidental radiation exposure.
Median survival after transplant for these patients is ∼1 month.
Concentration of Cesium in the Food Chain
Polish researchers performed elegant studies of concentration of radioactive Cesium 137 in Moss, derived from contaminated soil.6
So much for dreams of Australia as the “Food Bowl of Asia”.
Do you want more Irradiated Food?
If Australia gets more Nuclear Reactors, economics will drive profiteers to increase Gamma radiation of food, with unknown consequences.
Welcome to the Nuclear Disaster waiting to happen - Australia.
Vote very carefully in the rapidly approaching Federal Election.
Daniel Hurst. 13 May 2024. Australia risks being ‘world’s nuclear waste dump’ unless Aukus laws changed, critics say. The Guardian.
Nelson J. Chao, Cullen Case, Dennis Confer. 2019. HemaSphere Educational Updates in Hematology. Stem cell transplantation - Section 17. Medical management of acute responses to radiation. 3:S2. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/HS9.0000000000000225
A. Dołhańczuk-Śródka, Z. Ziembik, M. Wacławek. Transfer of Cs-137 from Forest Soil to Moss Pleurozium Schreberi. PROCEEDINGS OF 15th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEAVY METALS IN THE ENVIRONMENT. SEPTEMBER 19-23, 2010 GDAŃSK, POLAND. pp191-194.