"Presumably, most of that water is running off into the Pacific, carrying unknown quantities of radioactive particles with it... and with consequences, I fear, that we'll be hearing about for decades."

All of the contamination I've heard about has been Iodine-131, which has a half-life of about 8 days. If you didn't know this, or don't understand what "half-life" means, it would be responsible for you to abstain writing things like this.

The Fukushima disaster is a big deal. But hysterical speculation by a writer that doesn't know much about science doesn't help clarify anything.

I spy a Slogger in Blogtown! Ooh, exotic.

@stephen: Agreed. Speculation by a writer that doesn't know much about science doesn't help clarify things. Then again, one shouldn't presume to have superior knowledge and preface it with "all I've heard..." Perhaps especially since Cesium-137 (half life 30yrs) was detected near Fukushima as early as March 11th. Now that water used to cool the reactors is reaching the sea, scientists are concerned about it getting into the food chain--Cs-137 settles in muscle (flesh) as I'm sure you know.

@Goldy -- I guess you are not a popeye or superhero fan.