Shaken Faith: How Jaczko's Fukushima Missteps Undermined The Japanese Government

[FBaggins]

After the Fukushima disaster, a U.S. mistake undermined the Japanese government.

It was an honest mistake. On the morning of March 16, 2011, top officials of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission concluded that the spent fuel pool in Reactor No. 4 at Fukushima Dai-ichi must be dry. Thus began an episode that had enormous implications for the trust that Japanese people have in their public officials. To this day, millions of Japanese shun food grown in the northeast region of their country; many who live in that area limit their children's outdoor play, while others have fled to parts of Japan as far from Fukushima as possible. The reason many of them give is that they simply can't believe what government authorities say about the dangers of radiation exposure.

Why people became so cynical—and whether they’re right to be—is a subject of intense debate in Japan. The events of March 16, 2011, have been overlooked in this debate. But they shouldn't be. In retrospect, the episode may be among the most consequential to arise from the accident at the nuclear power plant. At 6:30 a.m. Washington time, shortly after a third explosion had rocked Fukushima Dai-ichi, Gregory Jaczko, the commission's then-40-year-old chairman, joined a conference call with members of his staff and other U.S. officials. From staffers who had rushed to Japan came a shocking report of damage the explosion had inflicted.

"Here's where I think we are," Jaczko told the group...

...snip...
In fact, unbeknownst to anyone on the call, the pool was adequately full of water and would continue to stay that way. But based in part on their conviction that the pool was empty and probably non-fillable, Jaczko and his colleagues quickly settled on several recommendations for the White House, most notably extending the evacuation zone for U.S. citizens to 50 miles from the plant.

...snip...

Instead of promptly acknowledging that his public comment evidently went too far, Jaczko stuck by it in the days that followed. Although he sometimes used phrases like "I hope our information is inaccurate," his agency did not publicly admit until June 15, 2011, three months later, that the Japanese assessment had been right all along.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/09/nrc_response_to_fukushima_a_mistake_turned_public_opinion_against_japan.2.html

[kristopher]

1. Time for this despicable industry to try an smear another critic?

So, it wasn't the triple meltdown and explosions that scared the Japanese, it was the bad publicity supposedly caused by inevitable confusion and caution on the part of the entire NRC. And of course, since Jaczko has been making statements like the one below, they are trying very hard to find a way to smear him and undermine his credibility as former NRC Chairman, and instead of an NRC failure it becomes Jaczko's personal failing.

Despicable.

Ex-top U.S. nuclear regulator counsels end to atomic power
BY KAZUAKI NAGATA
SEP 24, 2013

The ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant is a sign that the world needs to seriously rethink nuclear safety and consider possibly ending its dependence on atomic power, the former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday in Tokyo.

“When you look at what happened around the Fukushima Daiichi (No. 1) area, it’s simply unacceptable,” as tens of thousands of people have been unable to return to their homes due to radioactive contamination, said Gregory Jaczko, who served as the top U.S. nuclear regulatory official for nearly three years until July 2012.

Given that Japan is extremely prone to earthquakes and tsunami, among other disasters, using nuclear power poses serious risks unless some kind of new technology is created to completely eliminate the possibility of severe accidents, Jaczko told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

However, Jaczko also said that creating such zero-risk technology is next to impossible.

Instead, Jaczko said...

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/09/24/national/ex-top-u-s-nuclear-regulator-counsels-end-to-atomic-power/#.UkIeveAyHdl

http://www.democraticunderground.com/112754507

[intaglio]

2. Oh dear, everything at Fukushima is hunky dory, it's all the US fault

That there were multiple meltdowns (a fact you, personally, denied at length originally);
that the cores and the cooling water are continuing to contaminate both the ground, groundwater and seawater (a fact you, personally, and your other nuclear industry apologists denied at length);
that there were portions of the reactors were scattered over a vast area (a fact you, personally, denied originally).

The valid concern over the unstable and still potentially disastrous state of the number 4 fuel pool which was fed by the continued denials from TEPCO, the Japanese Government and the nuclear industry apologists, like you, personally, that there was any major escape of radiation from the reactors.

The problems about other countries continuing to refuse Japanese food imports has stuff all to do with the NRC and everything to do with the continuing escape of contaminants from the Fukushima site.