When I left the lab in early '80s I presumed ... that any lore accumulated re radiation, physics or just plain Goodness PLUS (then) ~$2.75:
would maybe get me a cup of decent coffee somewhere?

Hardly anticipated that my geiger counters would ever be 'used in anger' for their intended monitoring purposes, nor that some lore on the more insidious radionuclides might even become a damn Good-thing to have ready to hand.. although I had already some disdain for the propaganda re 'safety' of the various early BW reactors and such, given the cost-deferral/elimination mindsets of Suits everywhere.

Now it seems that the Japanese have Suited Ones as crass, dissembling and evasive as: Our Own!?
We've spread the Machiavellian ethic of our own brand of vulture capitalism even beyond Nippon to a new Colossus of fresh-minted avid consumers, only This One has 1.3 billions getting ready to emulate US.

'Hot particles' indeed: and the terse picture limned, of some alpha emitter stuck in a lung--is, I can testify--no exaggeration, and a long-term test of that One's actual immune system health.

Amidst all the other dismantling here, ongoing, I expect that little note shall be paid, officially, in US--except perhaps in any planned confrontations with the NRC over their laissez-faire 'enforcements' VS their traditional industry gemütlichkeit.

Haven't contacted any health physicists yet re. the (newly) calculated %core-dump of those first unCooled hours, as I expect the Intarweb shall shortly have some extrapolations.
I note just now that the IAEA's [ http://www.iaea.org/...namiupdate01.html ] Fukushima Nuclear Accident Update Log / "Full Update" ceases at 2 June '11.

Not a Good sign of forthcoming very-widely-promulgated New Dope, is it?


..and so it goes.