Minor quibble - Irradiators are not used to eliminate microbes or other pathogens from units of blood. Moreover, "sterile" blood would be lacking any living cells, including the ones necessary to carry oxygen. Irradiators are used to neutralize immune cells in the donated blood, preventing graft-vs-host disease in vulnerable populations.

Oh, and the link you cite doesn't even mention blood products. Here's a better one: http://www.aabb.org/advocacy/regulatorygovernment/irradiation/Pages/default.aspx

Holy hell, they dispersed 2800 goddamn curies of the 137Cs around the area? I sort of assumed this was a blah blah radiation paranoia type of incident. Not a 2800 goddamn curie type of incident.

That's like 2.8 kilos of radium in amount of radioactive decay per second. That's a shitload. I have to ask, but I'm sure they won't tell, how many curies of the material have been recovered by the response?

God I hope that's not as a soluble salt. Are we radiation-monitoring the sewage treatment plant?

It probably was the soluble chloride though, wasn't it. Shit.

How much have they recovered?

This is basically a dirty bomb attack with a grinding wheel instead of an explosive. A couple thousand curies of Cs-137 is a midrange dirty bomb scenario. I hope the grinding wheel is less effective. But I think this is being underplayed to avoid panic while they try to contain it.

In the 1987 radiological disaster in Brazil, it was 1380 curies dispersed, about half of the Harborview event. There they eventually recovered 87%; the rest remains in the environment while it decays. In that event the scrap was sold from junkyard to junkyard and children played with the glowing blue powder extracted (it was bad) so perhaps this is more recoverable? On the other hand it's not clear to me that all 1380 of that powder was removed from the capsule, while we apparently had 2800 atomized by a damn high speed grinder which seems poor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident

Anybody been round the building with a Geiger counter.

To be fair, dirty bombs are more of a tool of psychological and economic disruption than a lethal weapon, so I can understand the point of underplaying it. If no bulk material left the site, then none of us are at noticeable risk. But this is a major radiological event as they go.

@4 no, dirty bombs are easier to clean up after. For most people, as @6 says, you just need to disconnect your hot water tank and lines from the main, and take a shower with water that's good, then drink lots of water to flush your system, but leave your shoes and clothes at the doorway. Then don't turn on fans until a good rain. Once they've dealt with it, you flush out all the lines, NOT before, so the incoming clean water.