Japan nuke plant operator to compensate evacuees

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By SHINO YUASA and MARI YAMAGUCHI

TOKYO (AP) - The operator of Japan's tsunami-damaged nuclear plant said Friday it would pay an initial $12,000 for each household forced to evacuate because of leaking radiation - a handout some of the displaced slammed as too little.

Tens of thousands of residents unable to return to their homes near the nuclear plant are bereft of their livelihoods and possessions, unsure of when, if ever, they will be able to return home. Some have traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) to Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s headquarters in Tokyo to press their demands for compensation.

"We have decided to pay provisional compensation to provide the slightest help for the people (who were affected)," TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu told a news conference.

At the government's request, the utility will start paying out the roughly 50 billion yen ($600 million) in compensation April 28 to those forced to evacuate, with families getting 1 million yen (about $12,000) and single adults getting 750,000 yen (about $9,000), the government said.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110415/D9MK1HF00.html

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Japanese Emperor Akihito, left, and Empress Michiko, kneel down and smile at people at an evacuation shelter in Asahi City in Chiba Prefecture, about 86 kilometers (54 miles) east of Tokyo, Thursday, April 14, 2011 during their first trip to the disaster zone since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The imperial couple visited two evacuation shelters in the city near the Pacific coast. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

[Art_from_Ark]

1. Lousy translation

"We have decided to pay provisional compensation to provide the slightest help for the people (who were affected)," TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu told a news conference."

What he actually said was: "一日も早く仮払いしたい。具体的な金額はこれからしっかり決める"-- "We want to make provisional payments as soon as possible. The specific amounts will be decided later"

[Demeter]

2. It was a little cold-blooded translation

but probably a completely honest translation of their real intentions.

No one company can pay that many people what it owes them.

This is the beginning of the end of Japan, Inc. as well as Japan, the nation.

[Art_from_Ark]

3. That's what they said about Japan in 1945

This country (Japan) isn't going to roll over and play dead.

[SkyDaddy7]

5. You are correct! I have such admiration for...

the Japanese people & their lovely attitudes...Or at least the ones I follow on you tube & see in the news. I know the Japanese people will bounce back & counting them out is foolish!

Thanks for the translation correction...I follow a Canadian girl on You Tube (YT Channel: "Ciaela‬‏") who went to Japan several years ago as an exchange student studying Japanese & she loved the country so much she decided to return & live their after she got out of HS...She continued her studies of the Japanese language & I think she teaches English there as well. She makes all kinds of videos about Japan its culture, things to do there, how to act & the differences in culture between West & Japan, etc., I really enjoy watching her videos & the Japanese people that are in her videos!

[RC]

6. Correct. Japan is not the United States

They know how to work together towards a common goal. Unlike here, where we have the Party of NO! against any and everything the grown-ups try to do, no matter what it is or how good it is.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. There are Japanese public service commercials on TV

that are emphasizing the "working together" theme. For example, here is one commercial featuring famous Japanese saying things like "We're in this together" and "If we all give it our best, we'll absolutely make it" and "I believe in the strength of Japan".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4kVPW24zKE

[Demeter]

11. When the Japanese are all dying of radiation sickness, and the stillbirths climb

how is "working together" going to make any difference?

The magnitude of the disaster upon the ecosystem of Japan cannot be overstated.

[RC]

12. They are not all going to die of radiation sickness.

They were inoculated against radiation at the end of WWII. What don't kills ya, makes ya stronger. :sarcasm:

The Japanese culture has a whole different world view than us USA'ns do. You can't project our culture on the Japanese. It doesn't fit at all. The Japanese are a homogeneous culture, for one.
They will work together, clean up the mess, rebuild and come out of this as least as strong as before.

We need to get rid of the mindset that the rest of the world thinks and works as we do. It does not. Not even Canada and we share a common history and language with them.

[Demeter]

13. This Mess Cannot Be "Cleaned Up"

It cannot be "contained". It can't even be stopped. Just as Chernobyl, with one tenth the amount of "fuel" hasn't been cleaned up, contained or stopped.

A nuclear accident of this size is spreading forever.

[RC]

14. "...someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions,"

Your paranoia is unwarranted.

[Demeter]

15. Your Ignorance Is Inexcusable

Science is not paranoia. Educate yourself. This article is good for general population:

http://www.truthout.org/radioactive-human-embryos-our-nuclear-legacy

...In the 1940s, many of the world's premier nuclear scientists saw mounting evidence that there was no safe level of exposure to nuclear radiation. This led Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atom bomb, to oppose development of the hydrogen bomb.<1> In the 1950s, Linus Pauling, the only two-time winner of the Nobel Prize, began warning the public about exposure to all radiation. His opinion, ultimately shared by thousands of scientists worldwide, led President Kennedy to sign the nuclear test-ban treaty.

In the 1960s, Drs. John Gofman, Arthur Tamplin, Alice Stewart, Thomas Mancuso and Karl Morgan, all researchers for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) or the Department of Energy (DOE), independently came to the conclusion that exposure to nuclear radiation was not safe at any level. The government terminated their services for coming up with what Gofman has called the "wrong answer" - that is, the opposite of what the AEC wanted to hear.<2> The top Russian nuclear physicist in the 1960s, Andrei Sakharov, also a Nobel Prize winner, and Vladimir Chernousenko, whom the Soviet Union placed in charge of the Chernobyl cleanup, are among other international experts who drew similar conclusions.

To put lipstick on the pig of radioactive fallout, we hear from nuclear cheerleaders that common activities like watching TV and airline travel also expose us to radiation. True enough, although they never mention that airline pilots and flight attendants do have higher rates of breast and skin cancer.<3> But equating those very different types of radiation is like equating the damage of being hit with ping pong balls (photons) with being hit by bullets (beta particles). Your TV doesn't shoot bullets at you. Even if your TV was only shooting a few bullets per show, you probably wouldn't watch much TV. Furthermore, the damage done by these radioactive "bullets" can vary tremendously depending on which organs are hit. To carry the analogy one step further: spraying a few bullets into a large crowd can hardly be considered safe for everyone in the crowd, even if the ratio of bullets per person is very low.

Bioaccumulation causes an increasing concentration of many contaminates as one moves up the food chain. That's why beef is much higher in dioxins than cattle feed, tuna fish have much higher mercury than the water they swim in and fetal blood has higher mercury levels than maternal blood.<4> Radioactive iodine, cesium and strontium, all beta emitters, become concentrated in the food chain because of bioaccumulation. At the top of the food chain, of course, are humans, including fetuses and human breastmilk...

[SpoonFed]

16. +1

More than a month in and you're still a voice of reason around here. I'm waiting for the pro-nuke pundits to weigh in that 24,000 year half life is not exactly forever. Bah.

[WatsonT]

4. You speak Japanese?

If so, cool.

Thanks for the translation. That does change the tone a bit.

[Art_from_Ark]

7. Yes, I'm one of the Japanese-speaking residents here

Lydia Leftcoast, Bonobo, and AsahinaKimi also have a good knowledge of Japanese :) .

[uppityperson]

8. Thank you. It is a start, but just a start.

[Art_from_Ark]

9. That's also what the governor of Fukushima said

"It's just a start"