Japan nuclear plant emergency effort delayed by worker evacuation

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-nuclear-plant-emergency-effort-delayed-by-worker-evacuation/2011/03/21/ABh1Vv6_story.html

Japan nuclear plant emergency effort delayed by worker evacuation

By David Nakamura, Monday, March 21, 2:00 PM

TOKYO — Emergency workers lost precious hours Monday in http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific">their fight to prevent a full-scale meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant after mysterious gray smoke seen emanating from the facility prompted a mass evacuation.

The smoke was spotted just before 4 p.m. coming out of the building that houses the No. 3 reactor, the most badly damaged of the plant’s half-dozen reactors. It tapered off after two hours, but more smoke was seen near reactor No. 2 about 20 minutes later, according to officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO).

Though authorities concluded the smoke was steam and not coming from the overheated spent fuel pool, they acknowledged that radiation spiked one kilometer west of the facility, rising from 494 microsieverts at 5:40 p.m. to 1,932 at 6:30 p.m.

The level dropped to 442 at 8:30 p.m., but officials suspended operations for the day until further notice and the 700 employees who had been working to restore electrical power at the plant were evacuated.

…

[Raschel]

1. I read in another story that the workers ran out. We are not getting the truth, none of these

stories add up.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. We never get absolute truth (if there is such a thing)

There is no such thing as objective reporting. Reporters always write from some viewpoint, of facts they have limited knowledge of.

Their editors have viewpoints of their own.

It's our task (as readers/listeners/viewers) to try to divine what we believe may be “the truth™” which underlies the reporting.

[flamingdem]

3. I read that the workers have email and phone access cut

Not confirmed but believable.