Yosano Warns Nuclear Crisis Will Hurt Economy

[jpak]

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20110415D15JF063.htm

Japan's Minister for Economy and Fiscal Policy Kaoru Yosano said Friday the continuing crisis at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant poses a risk to the country's economy, but the scale of the damage isn't yet clear.

"Naturally it will have a negative impact on the economy," Yosano said at a regular press conference.

Countering criticism that the government should have mentioned the nuclear crisis in its most recent monthly economic report released earlier this week, Yosano said the it wasn't addressed because the scale and ultimate impact couldn't yet be assessed.

"Just because the monthly economic report did not mention the nuclear power plant accident does not mean we were downplaying its seriousness," he said.

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[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Is this the water is wet comment?

They are STILL trying to save face.

[kristopher]

2. I don't think they are avoiding discussion of the matter

It is so much worse than anything they'd anticipated and planned for they just have no idea how bad the full global economic consequences are going to be for Japan.

[FBaggins]

3. No... but you obviously are.

What percentage of the total damage to the Japanese economy over the next decade do you think will be attributable to the nuclear portion of this event?

[jpak]

4. No one can answer that until the disaster plays itself out - and independent analyses are conducted

US plants dependent on Japanese supply chains are shutting down - in part, due to Fukushima

yup

[FBaggins]

5. But you could make an educated guess.

Kris won't because an honest one would defeat his purpose and an estimate high enough to make the point would be clearly dishonest.

US plants dependent on Japanese supply chains are shutting down - in part, due to Fukushima

In part? How big a part? We don't have to wait for something to "play itself out" to guess, do we?

[jpak]

6. Based on insufficient, obfuscated, withheld and fudged data - no one can make an "educated" guess

nope

[kristopher]

7. So when I say "they don't know" your conclusion is that I am hiding from the facts?

That is a very peculiar reading of the remarks. In fact, it is so far away from the reality of what was written that it is obviously rooted in your personal campaign of harassment against me.

Let me state what I said once more. They don't yet know what the total global economic consequences are going to be. That is because they are so much worse than anything they have planned or prepared for.

There is nothing controversial or vague about that remark.

[FBaggins]

8. They also don't know what the full economic impact of the earthquake/tsunami will be

That doesn't mean that they can't tell that it's ridiculous to think that the reactors are anything more than a small proportion of the overall disaster.

I agree that we can't tell today whether it's one percent or five percent or even ten percent... but we know it isn't the bulk of the economic impact.

There is nothing controversial or vague about that remark.

Right... it's neither controversial nor vague. It's just ridiculous to leave out the FAR larger ecoomic impact of the events of the last few weeks.

Let's put it this way. When they look back twenty years from now and rank the economic impact of various disasters. The earthquake/tsunami is the headliner... the reactors are the footnote.

[kristopher]

9. Who is "leaving out" anything?

The question relates to the cost of Fukushima meltdown. Is it forbidden by you to discuss that impact as a discrete category of damage?

We actually do have a basic model for comparison, however. In 1995 Kobe experienced a severe earthquake that killed 6000 people. In that case there were 1.2 million volunteers that participated in the rescue and recovery efforts within about the first 10 weeks of the disaster.

With that as a benchmark it is going to be far easier to tease out data that lets us identify both the financial and human costs that are to be debited against the use of fissioning radioactive toxins to boil water.

For example here we are more than a month into the crisis and relatives are still asking for someone to look for the bodies of their loved ones in the area. To accomplish that the police must expose themselves to:

Radiation Surges in Japan as Police Search for Bodies
Apr 14, 2011 – 5:19 AM

Mari Yamaguchi and Shino Yuasa
AP
TOKYO - A new glitch in the cooling of used fuel at Japan's crippled nuclear plant prompted a surge in radiation, but an overall decline in leaks allowed police Thursday to search for missing tsunami victims closer to the complex than ever before.

Police in protective gear scoured a 6-mile radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi for the first time Thursday as part of their search for thousands of victims still missing after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

"We need to work very carefully so as not to rip our radiation suits with the debris, metal and chunks of concrete scattered everywhere in the zone," a police officer who gave only his surname, Sato, said in a telephone interview.

Although Japanese officials have insisted the situation at the crippled plant is improving, the crisis has dragged on, accompanied by a nearly nonstop series of mishaps and aftershocks of the 9.0-magnitude quake that have impeded work in clearing debris and restoring the plant's disabled cooling systems.

[FBaggins]

10. Who is leaving out anything?

The guy bemoaning how hard the neighbor's life is going to get because of his missing toe...

... when the toe was lost in an industrial accident that cost him his leg.

For example here we are more than a month into the crisis and relatives are still asking for someone to look for the bodies of their loved ones in the area.

There are 15,000 people still missing "more than a month" later. You think they're all near the reactors?

With that as a benchmark it is going to be far easier to tease out data that lets us identify both the financial and human costs that are to be debited against the use of fissioning radioactive toxins to boil water.

Riiight. Well, I suppose that shows your normal "this is just as bad as Chernobyl" analysis. So any cost greater than the Kobe quake gets laid at the feet of the reactors, right?

[madokie]

11. Man o man your arguments rings so hollow

I'm just about not able to read them anymore. :hi:
Bye by
I'll check you out again on the way down and see if you've gotten any sense about you yet.