http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium#Toxicity
I struggle with nuclear within the Transition Towns context. Basically Transition Towns is about attempting to put in place survival and resilience mechanisms at a local level in the face of world trends that present overwhelming challenges to the future of humanity but hopefully not completely insurmountable challenges.
Once nuclear power plants start imploding and releasing large amounts of plutonium we face challenges that don’t have ‘local solutions’ or any solutions.
Which is why it is so important to move away from these enormously dangerous technologies towards sustainable processes/technologies for our core energy needs.
I’m not in a technical position to assess Fukushima but it does sound very very bad indeed. After I read the stuff on Fukushima reactor no. 4 yesterday I was left thinking of my son and granddaughter in Melbourne and Neville Shute’s On The Beach where Melbourne ends up being the last place the nuclear fallout finally disperses to; the last place people survive for a short while before it hits there too.
If anyone wants to borrow On The Beach I have a copy. Not a long book but it makes the point.