Radiation-Threatened Fukushima Accuses Japan of Information Void

[Godhumor]

Source: Bloomberg

Fukushima Prefecture, epicenter of the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, accused Japan’s central government of sowing confusion and hampering recovery efforts through poor communication.

"The people of Fukushima are worried about the situation, so make sure you’re keeping us informed of what the government is doing," Governor Yuhei Sato said today in a heated exchange with Shingo Naito, deputy director general for industrial safety at the Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry.

Almost 5,900 people in Fukushima prefecture died or are listed as missing following the March 11 quake and subsequent tsunami, according to the National Police Agency. More than 177,000 people were evacuated from houses within 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) of the Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant.

...

"The government tells us to be ready for further evacuation orders in case of a ‘worst-case scenario,’ but I wonder what that suggests?" Minami Soma Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai said in a telephone interview. “We want to get on with rebuilding our city. We just don’t have the sort of information we need from the government.”

Read more: http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=a5k4ydWUo2kI

---

Information void seems to be a good word for it--my family has been keeping up to date on what is actually happening in Japan by talking with my mother-in-law who lives in Saitama prefecture. Even then, we can only talk about the shortages and blackouts--she has about the same level of knowledge as us on what is happening in Fukushima.

[Botany]

1. It is already a ‘worst-case scenario,’ now

town 25 miles upwind from the plant ... past the evacuation zone is now hot.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4793977

This little town is only a few miles from the large city of Fukushima

[avaistheone1]

2. The least the Japanese government should do is to give their people reliable information.

k&r

[Hestia]

6. Yeah they should, but this must be much worse that anyone wants to admit

One moment levels are high, the next moment, no it's not, just a small spike. They've done this so much, no one believes them anymore. Something no one has answered - okay, we get radiation everyday, supposedly, but do we get plutonium, iodine 13?, selenium, or whatever it is they are spewing everyday? On the one hand, it's worrisome, on the other, nah, it's just radiation, no worries mon...

[stockholmer]

3. I will not sugar-coat this, there is a concerted global effort to blackout what's actually happening

plus, there is an ARMY of pro-nuke shills on every site I visit

it is disgusting:mad:

[avaistheone1]

4. Yes

However, I think the media in the UK is doing a fairly decent job of reporting what info they can get their hands on.

[stockholmer]

5. I agree, it is just so difficult sifting thru all the sources looking for a nugget of truth

it's a bloody full-time job, lololol (bitterly)

[bananas]

12. There's a FOIA to find out why US citizens were told to evacuate 50 miles

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x284733

USA Freedom of Information request on Fukushima nuclear radiation

Groups Demand Data on Radiation Release - NYTimes.com, 28 March 11, As the Japanese authorities order a wider evacuation area around the stricken Fukushima reactor complex to as far out as 19 miles, three health and environmental groups in the United States announced that they were seeking further information about why American officials recommended that its citizens keep at least 50 miles away……

-The American groups — Friends of the Earth, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and Physicians for Social Responsibility — said on Friday that they were filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy. They are seeking access to all information about radiation levels gathered by American radiological monitoring equipment and helicopter overflights…..

Groups Demand Data on Radiation Release – NYTimes.com

[truthisfreedom]

13. FOIA request for information? Cripes... it's called a safety margin.

19 miles is an arbitrary figure. 50 miles is a larger but still arbitrary figure. If there's a significant fission event or other explosion at the reactor sites, the 50 mile limit will be increased to some other arbitrary figure, like 100. Or 250. Who knows... somebody just makes these numbers up and hopes they're big enough.

[bananas]

16. No, these are based on scientific data and analysis

Read between the lines:
On the 14th, the NRC advised Americans to follow the Japanese recommendations.
On the 16th, the NRC recommended the 50-mile evacuation radius
On the 17th, nuclear industry lobbyists questioned the scientific basis for the 50-mile radius.
On the 17th, the DOE said two seperate tests were consistent with the new recommendation.
On the 25th, the FOIA was announced.
On the 30th, the NRC said it would use a 50 mile radius in a similar US accident.

According to one of the articles below, "In the U.S., nuclear reactor licensees and local governments are only asked to provide for evacuation out to 10 miles."

This was done in spite of massive lobbying pressure by the nuclear industry.
Nuclear industry lobbyists are NOT happy about this.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/14/news/la-pn-white-house-nuclear-response-20110315

March 14, 2011

"Right now, based on the information we have, we believe that the steps that the Japanese are taking to respond to this crisis are consistent with the approach that we would use here in the United States," Jaczko said. "We advise Americans in Japan to listen to and to follow the instructions of the Japanese government with regard to the nuclear facilities."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20110325/pl_usnw/DC71791

Fukushima-Related FOIA Request: Full Data Sought on Radiation Levels That Led To NRC Chair's Call for 50-Mile Evacuation Radius for Americans in J

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2011 –
Why Aren't Japanese and American Citizens Getting All the Facts? "Extreme" Step Seen As Indication of Much Higher Radiation Levels Than Revealed So Far by NRC, Japanese Government
...
On March 16, 2011, NRC Commissioner Gregory B. Jazcko told Congress that he was recommending the 50-mile evacuation radius. (See http://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/organization/commission/comm-gregory-jaczko/0317nrc-transcript-jaczko.pdf.) The scope of the recommended evacuation is highly unusual and suggestive of extraordinarily high radiation levels in excess of those reported to the public in Japan and the U.S., the three groups said. In the U.S., nuclear reactor licensees and local governments are only asked to provide for evacuation out to 10 miles.
...

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201103171206dowjonesdjonline000498&title=us-nuclear-industry-questions-scientific-basisof-us50-mile-evacuation-in-japan

US Nuclear Industry Questions 'Scientific Basis' Of US' 50-Mile Evacuation In Japan
By Tennille Tracy, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. nuclear power industry is questioning the " scientific basis" of the Obama administration's decision to evacuate U.S. citizens and military personnel within a 50-mile radius from the Fukushima power plant in Japan.

"We have questions about the scientific basis for that," said Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

The Obama administration's 50-mile evacuation made headlines Wednesday because Japanese officials have only evacuated an area within 12 miles.

Based on the available data, Kerekes said Japan's evacuation policy appears " sufficient to minimize public health impacts."

<snip>

03-17-111206ET

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700119472/US-defends-50-mile-evacuation.html

U.S. defends 50-mile evacuation
Published: Thursday, March 17, 2011 11:05 p.m. MDT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Thursday that radiation leaking from the crippled Japanese nuclear complex does not present a danger to the western United States or its Pacific territories at this time. Officials also defended a proposed 50-mile evacuation zone for American troops and citizens in Japan.
...
The U.S. Energy Department said it had conducted two separate tests to measure how much radioactive material had been deposited on the ground in Japan. That data, Poneman said, was consistent with the recommendation for American citizens to evacuate a 50-mile radius around the plant.
...

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2011/03/31/nuclear_crisis_evacuation_plan_outlined/

Nuclear crisis evacuation plan outlined
Bloomberg News / March 31, 2011

WASHINGTON — Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Gregory Jaczko said the federal government would seek to evacuate residents within 50 miles of a power plant in the event of an accident similar to Japan’s nuclear crisis.

Jaczko made the comment in prepared testimony yesterday before a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee panel.
...

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Japan is managing the release of that data to their own people.

And yes, they may be minimizing it, but that is their problem, not ours.

What will happen if the data shared by Japan to the US Government is released in an unmanaged way, and sparks a panic in Japan? It would mean no further information from the Japanese Government, to ours.


THere may ultimately be a time when the situation warrants that sort of action by any moral entity with a copy of the data, but I don't think we've reached it yet.

[AtheistCrusader]

8. Not so many here.

I tend to be pro-nuke, but I'm not saying too much about it now, because the radiation releases from the plant show that the company and the government are trying to minimize the reality of the situation. Not to mention this has spun WAY past what any sense of reason should support, because easily preventable effects from the tsunami were not guarded against. Likely because it could have cost considerable money.

SO, I figure; since the company let us all down in the design of the plant (To say nothing of hushed up safety violations in the past) I should not spend any energy supporting them.

It would be a lot easier to defend them if they HAD actually taken every measure to protect the plant, or been honest up front about the damage, the likely outcome, and evacuated a much larger area pro-actively. There are some still-inhabited towns that are getting pretty hot right now, and that is simply criminal.

[stockholmer]

11. had some hope for Generation 4 pebblebed reactors(much less waste produced)but theyre 15+ years off

and this nightmare will probably kill much of the funding sources

[Raschel]

7. The U.N. nuclear watchdog and Japan's nuclear safety agency say the gov't should consider widening

the 20-km (12-mile) zone after high radiation was detected at twice that distance from the facility.

[aquart]

9. Oh, crap. They haven't evacuated the whole prefecture?

[flamingdem]

10. PROBLEM: The govt lacks resources to evacuate the 1 million in the 50 mile zone nt

[DeSwiss]

14. To give truthful information.....

...to the public, scares the shit out of these greedy-assed, split-brained nuclear-apologists. As well as their ethically-challenged intelligentsia. All one has to remember is how long it took for the victims of previous nuclear meltdowns to die or move off into obscurity and for the rest of us to forget them, before these stupid bastards could begin selling their fucking poisonous "cheap energy solutions" once again.


- It never ceases to amaze me how humanity can be both the most brilliant organism ever known, while at the same time the stupidest fucks to ever cast a shadow......

K&R