Radioactive control in knife manufacture

[Wolfie677]

I just hope Spyderco never manufactures knives in South America. I'm terrified of Banana Spiders so the chance of not having one inside my knife is a priority.

:D Any male that knows what the Banana Spider is would be a fool to NOT be terriefied of it. I'm cool with most spiders, they keep my house pest free. Banana Spiders, not so much... :eek:

[The Mentaculous]

The concern isn't for some kind of Chernobyl incident with hundreds of square miles of radioactive ghost towns, the concern is for people close to the plant and particularly anyone who may be downwind from the plant.

My prayers are with the brave people who are risking their health working around the clock to avert disaster. However, even the worst case scenario in this situation would be nothing like Chernobyl. As I said, the concern is a more localized risk. Chernobyl had NONE of the containment safeguards that are now required, and their reaction was to cover up, rather than seek help and try to mitigate or avert the disaster.


Personally, I'm worrying about people suffering and dying, not worrying about if I can buy knives from there anymore....seems that there are much more meaningful issues for Japan and the World than slight amounts of radioactivity in export materials. Seems a bit insensitive and self-centered to be worried about your own frivolous possessions when the issue is people losing their homes, their family members and their lives.

[Blerv]

Nuclear scare has done more bad than good. There are downfalls of all energy resources and most of which are far more toxic or more scarce than nuclear.

Coming up with a "what if?" is easy. There are people who won't fly on airplanes because some crash. Then again, these same people drive cars every day which point-for-point are MULTIPLE times more deadly.

If you don't want to die from natural causes avoid stairs, solid foods, and the sun. Those are more likely to kill you than a freak of mother nature wave and some poorly positioned power structures.

[MCM]

Agree Pinetree, having worked at one for 27 yrs & have been on the ERO for over 20 yrs.
Got hired during a TMI upgrade in 83. Been there ever since.......

[MCM]

Chernobyl incident / No containment structure & graphite cooling.
Apples & oranges.

[psychophipps]

There is a limit to how much suck you can effectively plan for, in all honesty. This Japan situation took "super-suck" Hugh Jass eathquake and then slapped on a "-duper-pooper-scooper-" tsunami in the middle of it for good measure.

There isn't a single nuclear plant anywhere on the planet that wouldn't have been totally screwed by an equivalent double-whammy like that. PERIOD.

[yablanowitz]

I assume that downrange risk correlates directly to how far up in the atmosphere the radioactive material goes? Bomb testing would create a much greater downwind risk than a ground-level release, then? Don't know, just guessing with some logic...

Yep. Above ground bomb testing sends a cloud of radioactive debris clear to the stratosphere. In the incident I'm recalling, I believe it was a 5 megaton bomb or thereabouts, and it took six days for the jet stream to carry the fallout that far. The only way we will see fallout from the reactors in Japan is if someone decides to blow them up to keep them from melting down.

Also, radiation level decreases with the square of the distance from the source. Double the distance, radiation level drops to one fourth what it is at contact range. Get a mile away from an operating nuclear reactor and you can't detect the radiation from it. The real problem is the radioactive material blowing around and bringing the radiation source to you.

[Pinetreebbs]

Agree Pinetree, having worked at one for 27 yrs & have been on the ERO for over 20 yrs.
Got hired during a TMI upgrade in 83. Been there ever since.......

Thank you for your service.

[JNewell]

You're being way too logical, and thus missing the point. Nuclear power is one of those 'hot button' issues that just doesn't yield to logic.

Thirty years doesn't change the facts or the laws of physics. Nuclear power is still the cleanest alternative for baseline electricity needs.

There may have been one death from TMI, every year pollution from coal fired power plants kills about 10,000 people. We have thousands of acres of coal ash, including radioactive elements that are in coal, spread over thousands of acres of land. It has no half life. You could collect all our used (it still has 90% energy content) and it would fit inside a super WalMart.

The Three Mile Island incident gave us lessons learned:

1) Nuclear accidents can happen, but the consequences are much less than generally imagined.

2) The Three Mile Island accident was very much a part of the regulatory regime in which nuclear power had been developed. It had less to do with the technology.

3) The regimen under which nuclear plants operate today has improved immeasurably. The safety communications among reactor owners, for one, is orders of magnitude better than it was in the 1970s. This is both the result of industry efforts and the rise of merchant energy companies that now own and operate the majority of reactors.

4) In terms of overall environmental impact, nuclear power is undoubtedly the cleanest and safest form of electrical generation we have today. However, the failure to build new nuclear plants and the continuing operation of a few aging reactors creates the possibility that another Three Mile Island-type accident could occur.

[Shenmue728]

Next time anyone wants a seki knife he can buy it from me to ensure it is not radioactive. You must understand the dangers involved, however, and the hazardous material handling fees that go along with them. It's not a safe job, believe me, but I am willing to help out in these dangerous uncertain times.

[enduraguy]

Live a little. Sheesh. But if so inclined buy one of these:

[Halfneck]

Got injected with some radioactive isotopes on Monday for a Nuclear Bone Scan so I'm still a bit radioactive myself.

[chuck_roxas45]

GITD endura for me.

[Ankerson]

Sorry bud, not true. We got measureable radioactive fallout from above ground bomb testing in China when I was at prototype training in New England back in 1978. It wasn't enough to be harmful, but it was three times normal background count.

A radiography source (the type of source that article was talking about) being melted down would be equivalent to gathering up all the radioactive material released in Japan since the earthquake and concentrating it all into the blade of one Ladybug. Radiography sources use isotopes with half-life measurements in years (Cobalt 60 is commonly used, half-life 5.26 years), fission products typically have half-life measurements in days at most (many are measured in minutes), so even if the steel did somehow get contaminated, the activity would decay away long before the steel got made into a knife, much less got into your hands.

That's what I ment really, I do know that it does go up into the Atmosphere and gets very thin and spread out over a very large area. I didn't want to get too deep into it and start talking about it in that way.

It would take one heck of a lot more than that to hit dangerous levels....

I was an N.B.C. specialist when I was in the Military.

[Sequimite]

Radiation like so many things today is incorrectly perceived in black and white terms.

The benign brain tumor I had could be treated by surgery or radiation. I chose radiation and have approximately 1 chance in 100 of developing brain cancer. With surgery I would have had about 1 chance in 80 of dying on the operating table. Seemed like an easy choice to me but i can't believe how many choose surgery because radiation and cancer are so scary.

[npueppke]

Oh jeez... why aren't we talking about peanut butter yet?

[Ankerson]

Oh jeez... why aren't we talking about peanut butter yet?

What's happening over in Japan is serious stuff for those who are living there and could be a real threat if things get out of control.

This stuff is no joke for those who are any place near it.

I really feel for the people over in Japan, the stress level of living there now has to be extremely high.

[kawr]

What's happening over in Japan is serious stuff for those who are living there and could be a real threat if things get out of control.

This stuff is no joke for those who are any place near it.

I really feel for the people over in Japan, the stress level of living there now has to extremely high.

Agreed. I honestly thought this was a terrible attempt at trolling and I really hope it is because otherwise this is just too pathetic. How can someone possibly be worried about radioactive knives when there are thousands of bodies washing up on shore and millions of people having to deal with radioactivity.

[Ankerson]

Agreed. I honestly thought this was a terrible attempt at trolling and I really hope it is because otherwise this is just too pathetic. How can someone possibly be worried about radioactive knives when there are thousands of bodies washing up on shore and millions of people having to deal with radioactivity.

I know what you mean.

The conditions over there are just horrible and added to that the threat from the radiation... :eek:

[v8r]

I have tritium sights on my handgun do you think I will be alright.......I guess if the radiation gets to me bad enough I could always just shoot myself with it.

All kidding aside, Japan and it's people have more important things to worry about than a stupid consumer product for the United States.