My friend is a bit crazy about radioactivity in AX2010

So my friend and I plan on going to AX this year, but he is a bit scared that the stuff the people are going to sell is radioactive. I told him that I think that the sellers probably have stored their merchandise somewhere over here or have imports they just want to sell from long ago. He has calmed down about it and hasn't brought it up and we still plan on going.

So is it possible he is scared about radioactivity and thought of this? I think he is just worried.

Radioactive, no.
Over priced, yes.

FreeThought is right.
By the way, if you see a cosplayer dressed as Trent from Daria then that's me. lol
I might also be a gas mask zombie from Doctor Who.

...pretty sure that unless there are any major merch factories in Fukashima, you're quite fine.

Totally agree with you on this.

Thanks for the answers everyone.

Unless the products have been sitting near a nuclear reactor this whole time, they are fine. >_>

Uh... people? You realize there's like all kinds of screening for stuff coming from Japan? At customs?

...that to be contaminated the stuff would have to have been left in the *direct vicinity* of the Dai Ichi powerplant for *weeks*.

...then some crazy fuck would have had to go in and collect the stuff and sell it.

I don't see how that could happen.

So for fuck's sake, read up on the issue - turn of your TV, your radio, your favorite blogger... they're all asshats who can't distinguish between a sievert and half-life - and stop being so raging stupid.

Start here:
http://www.iaea.org/

The situation in Fukushima sucks. The ocean in the immediate vicinity is contaminated - this will quickly be fixed on its own as soon as closed circuit cooling is restored, the ocean's vast, the contaminants few - and so are the actual power-plant facilities.

Thankfully actual radiation is manageable.... really sucks for those 10 000 people who just had to up and relocate though. (It'll likely be a whole year before they can safely move back in).

Food stuff and fish will have to be monitored in the area for months, maybe years, but if regulations are followed, the population as a whole will get away scott free.... not bad when you had a disaster 10 times worse than what the facilities had been designed for. (Though TEPCO management deserves to have their nuts squeezed, for their ineptitude and cover my ass idiocy that made the situation worse).

Seriously, the media is at fault for bloating up the whole radiation issue.

I directly asked FreeOtakuGhost who lives there (not in fukushima obviously), and he said it's A-OK.

Don’t want to turn this into a debate about the mainstream media, and there are unreliable sources of news, but it’s not always the media that’s at fault. It’s also how people interpret what the media is saying and the “telephone effect” of people passing around information by word of mouth.

I have not heard of any media outlet claiming that imported goods have been irradiated, only that some companies have slowed production a bit.

Not only that, but we are getting conflicted reports regarding just how many millisieverts per hour we are talking about where and at any given time. It isn't measuring up anywhere close to Chernobyl, but one has to wonder just how close it really is or is not.

You only have to worry about the intensity of radiation (measured in sieverts) if you're in the immediate vicinity (within the 10 km / 6 mile radius). Radiation can't travel far, it decreases with the square of the distance.

Instead one has to look out for is fallout: nuclear waste that travels in the air or as contamination on stuff. Thankfully so far, the reporting and handling of *that* issue at least has been more than satisfactory (thanks to the IAEA who takes this *really* seriously).

The bulk of the contamination released by Fukushima was nitrogen isotopes during scheduled blow-outs. These have half-life measured in seconds, too short to get anywhere (...and this is what the crew of a US chopper got caught by when they flew too close. The radiation dose was not high enough to be a concern, it's comparable to getting CT scanned). Next were iodine isotopes, these will decay within months.

The ocean near the plant also has greater iodine isotope level, since salt water was used to cool the reactors as a stop-gap measure. Experts agree that this should cause no long term issue, as the contamination will be too diluted.

(Even if its a thousand times greater than normal, it's still not grounds for concern. If I said there's a thousand times more snow than usually normal for the year, you'd just conclude it's winter. What reporters fail to do, is put these reading into perspective - yes isotope levels have to be monitored, and fishing suspended, but that's it. It won't cause damage if those measures are taken).

The greatest concern are cesium isotopes, as some of these have half live measured in years and will require careful monitoring. Thankfully this kind of contamination was also low. When dealing with contaminants one also has to take into account that the bigger area they're spread over, the less effect they have...

...so any contaminants that actually reach anywhere outside Fukushima won't be at dangerous levels anymore. The fact we can detect it et all in Europe and the USA is a testament to the high-sensitivity of modern instruments, rather than the severity of the incident.

Yeah, I understand that I wasn't talking about the implications to the rest of Japan, or the world, just the surrounding areas.

Yeah, the cesium isotopes is definitely the thing to be concerned with. Half life of thirty years, we're talking about with one-three-seven. And supposedly it was that very isotope that was detected.

To be specific my "local media" lol. There are some that actually warn people to not import anything from Japan for safety reasons... >_>

I even have a friend that went, "Be Careful if you're ordering something from Japan, because radiation and stuff". I just laugh at him in his face for that... I felt bad about the laughing part... lol

seriously? slap him upside the head for me. do a little research on the subject and show him how idiotic hes being by worrying about it.

I always knew you couldn't trust things from Japan.

Now they're trying expose us to toxic waste.

You realize you get more radiation from your cellphone and microwaves then just being in japan or buying stuff that came from.... unless you live in the nuke plant... then your fucked anyways.

yet noone believes that because the media makes it out to be fucking doomsday.

Just radiation will make you into a superhuman, Superman is powered by radiation aka the sun(which is more deadlier then being 1000 Miles away from a leak.)and the human body is slighly radioactive .. less then a .001% but still we are energy and our brain are electrify.

Radioactive, no
Over Priced, yes
totally worth it, you bet your fuckin ass it is

Radioactivity doesn't come from anything other than its source. Just because a piece of dust is exposed to radiation doesn't mean its radioactive dust. If the merchandise was exposed to radiation, the best possible situation is that its free of bacteria. The worst possible situation is that... can't really think of one...