Documents Say Navy Knew Fukushima Dangerously Contaminated the USS Reagan

[kpete]

But a stunning new report by an American scholar based in Tokyo confirms that Naval officers communicated about what they knew to be the serious irradiation of the Reagan. Written by Kyle Cunningham and published in Japan Focus, “Mobilizing Nuclear Bias” describes the interplay between the U.S. and Japanese governments as Fukushima devolved into disaster.

Cunningham writes that transcribed conversations obtained through the Freedom of Information Act feature naval officials who acknowledge that even while 100 miles away from Fukushima, the Reagan’s readings “compared to just normal background [are] about 30 times what you would detect just on a normal air sample out to sea.”

On the nuclear-powered carrier “all of our continuous monitors alarmed at the same level, at this value. And then we took portable air samples on the flight deck and got the same value,” the transcript says.

Serious fallout was also apparently found on helicopters coming back from relief missions. One unnamed U.S. government expert is quoted in the Japan Focus article as saying:

At 100 meters away it (the helicopter) was reading 4 sieverts per hour. That is an astronomical number and it told me, what that number means to me, a trained person, is there is no water on the reactor cores and they are just melting down, there is nothing containing the release of radioactivity. It is an unmitigated, unshielded number. (Confidential communication, Sept. 17, 2012).

http://my.firedoglake.com/solartopia/2014/02/26/navy-knew-fukushima-dangerously-contaminated-the-uss-reagan/

[pa28]

1. K&R

[madokie]

2. Its obvious we've been lied to

by both the Navy and the folks at TEPCO. This fukushima disaster is a lot worse than they're letting on it is

[mindwalker_i]

3. Every kid joining theU.S. millitary should understand this

They might be sent to was in order to secure oil companies' profits, they might be sent to a nuclear disaster to keep it from blowing up, but at the expense of their health or lives. In the latter case, a company, and arguably a foreign government, fucked up. U.S. ships and people were sent in to help without precautions taken for their safety.

After seeing this and after seeing the state of VA care (I'm referring to the ass-load of unprocessed cases that John Stewart did multiple segments on), it should be clear to those thinking of "serving" that the government doesn't care about them. They serve a function - oil profits, cleaning up a corporation's nuclear mess - and fuck them after that. Tough luck, guys.

[malaise]

5. The problem with most young folks across the globe is that they

don't know that the 'national interest' is the interests of the big corporations.

Horrific indeed - but we knew this already.
Way too many lies about this nuclear disaster - next time let's hope it happens somewhere in Russia - it would be covered 24/7 and then some.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Once again I will pretend to be surprised.

[malaise]

7. You're the first person I thought about

when I saw this madness.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Well I will have to eat a banana in honor of this

[malaise]

13. LOL

Mine won't be ready before tomorrow

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. "there is no water on the reactor cores and they are just melting down"

When some of us here cited stories and sources who were saying there was a meltdown, back in late 2011 an dearly 2012,
the scornful attacking replies form pro-nuke DU members was scathing.
Lousy news for the poor seamen/women on the ship.
Wonder how far up the chain of command the warnings got before they were ignored.

[malaise]

8. Yes indeed

I won't forget that

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. One of the many reasons why I post a lot less

here, and NOTHING on this...

[Ghost Dog]

14. Yep.

And it seems that many, in corporate-propaganda-land, are still unaware.

[L0oniX]

9. No one should be surprised that our government and its military lies to us.

Vietnam was all I needed to make up my mind about having any respect for either.

[madokie]

15. You and I came to the same conclusion for the same reason

[frwrfpos]

12. DU rec

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. No, no, you must be mistaken, or are a subversive anti-capitalist stooge!

Very Serious People have placed verified adults in charge and all is well, there's nothing to see here.

[Sirveri]

17. 4 Sieverts is much more likely due to being in the discharge plume.

What they were reading was most likely the airborne release of the primary venting steam to atmosphere, which meant they were breathing in piles of radio iodine and fission products, which is actually worse (for them) than if they were only reading the core. If they were only reading the core, then that means they either were not in the plume (unlikely at such a close distance), or there wasn't a significant airborne release (which we know is false).