Paranoid thought - if a catastrophic Chernobyl type meltdown happened, is it possible

[quinnox]

that Japan would keep it a secret? Is this possible. When Chernobyl happened, did the USSR at first say everything was under control and only later the extent of the catastrophe was known? I don't remember. Is there independent monitoring going on of radiation levels worldwide?

[Snoutport]

1. It will be hard to cover up Godzilla

Pardon, I joke, but wasn't the whole message of the Godzilla movies that something like this could happen?

[fascisthunter]

9. yes

[randome]

23. Godzilla Was Thematically Important

You didn't take the shellacking some other poster took for mentioning Godzilla.

Think of the irony here.

Japan was the first civilization to feel the horror of nuclear energy. They imagined Godzilla to teach us -and themselves- about the follies of it. And now they've endangered themselves and perhaps parts of the rest of the world with...nuclear energy.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I considered that too.

And I have no basis upon which to calculate probabilities.

[Posteritatis]

3. The Soviets said everything was under control for maybe a day or so

Then they gave up trying because it was that big. It was immediately obvious that it wasn't to a good chunk of the outside world, and it would be incomparably more difficult to hide it in Japan these days. If anything near the same league as Chernobyl happened there, every country on the planet with more than a couple of satellites in orbit would know immediately.

(Also, Japan has no real reason to try to hide such a thing, especially given the impossibility of doing so.)

[CLANG]

15. The Soviets didn't have a free press, which is the only reason they could lie for a few days.

[The Blue Flower]

4. Independent monitoring found it

I think it was the govt of Finland that first reported it. I think we can safely assume it's being monitored by others, including the IAEA.

[slackmaster]

5. It was perfectly in character for the USSR at the time to try to keep a lid on Chernobyl

Japan is not the old USSR. It would be impossible for them to conceal it anyway, and it would be inconsistent with Japan's normal conduct.

[LisaL]

6. If I recall correctly, USSR had said nothing about Chernobyl

for at least some days after it happened.

[Hannah Bell]

7. no. for the reason you mention, all gov'ts monitor radiation levels, as can/do

private orgs & individuals.

live monitoring of japanese media here, in english:

http://yokosonews.com/live

[Bluenorthwest]

22. An amazing link, Hannah. I could spend all day...

Thank you kindly.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. It's impossible to "hide" that kind of radiation

The USSR tried to hide Chernobyl, for all of about two days. What happened is that radiation detectors at hundreds of military sites and universities around the world began to trigger event alarms.

The technology can pick up even very small releases of radioactive material, that's how good it's gotten.

There has been a ton of rumor-mongering over this disaster, and it's not limited to nuclear issues; if I see one more search turn up with "HAARP/the Moon/the Face on Mars/the Pope wiping his patootie caused the Japanese Earthquake", I may just scream.

--d!

[somone]

10. The Japanese media is very focused on this right now

It'd be foolish for anyone to try and cover up.

[KittyWampus]

12. Oh, I think Japanese Bureaucrats can spin and obfuscate with the best of them.

[Posteritatis]

14. It is not physically possible to hide something like that. The laws of reality itself prevent it. nt

[KittyWampus]

16. You must forget the BPA Oil Spill.

[Posteritatis]

17. Completely unrelated circumstances.

If a Chernobyl happened in India, civilian equipment in Nebraska would swiftly detect it. You cannot hide this.

[KittyWampus]

11. About Chernobyl. Just last year there were PR flacks trying to say it wasn't that bad after all.

[dipsydoodle]

13. Does it matter ?

.

[Cleita]

18. They will try. They are already spinning and downplaying it. n/t

[Overseas]

19. It is possible that they would try to minimize the extent of the danger, but

some other countries will be monitoring and reporting the actual figures. Some countries still have more independent reporting than we do. They may share news that upsets multinational corporations.

But certainly, there will be many countries wanting to go along with minimizing the extent of the dangers. We all want to pretend that nuclear power is a more viable alternative than clunky solar panels or dorky windmills.

We in the USA don't want to zoom ahead with massive jobs programs to rebuild our infrastructure with conservation technologies integrated into it because THOSE WOULD INCLUDE TOO MANY GOVERNMENT JOBS and the safety of humanity is less important than being sure not to have to many of those damn government jobs. We gotta be bipartisan with The GOP Way.

[roamer65]

20. We'll know in a day ot two.

That's when independent monitoring will pick it up and ask the Japanese what the fuck is going on.

[subterranean]

21. The Japanese have covered up more minor nuclear accidents before.

But there's no way they'd be able to cover up a full-scale meltdown. I really, really hope it doesn't come to that.

[backscatter712]

24. If it's a full-fledged Chernobyl, radiation detectors around the world would start ringing.

Granted, this disaster is Bad, but it's not quite Chernobyl-Bad. At this point, I'd call it a couple steps above Three-Mile-Island - there's some radioactivity, but mostly as tritium, which will naturally decay and disperse.

It's still fucking horrible - we'll be seeing cancer-clusters and long-term effects from this.