Japan & Nuclear Radiation: Fear Mongering vs. Facts

[Sonicwall]

I wake up this morning and sure enough – the international media has gone crazy with sensational reporting about the small radiation leak that occurred yesterday. Many papers and news networks are apparently still running with yesterday’s false report of a dangerous “radiation cloud” heading for Tokyo.

Although the Japanese people seem relatively calm, I am witnessing absurd levels of panic and fear among English-speaking twitter users and bloggers. Even a couple prominent Japan bloggers have fallen for radiation paranoia and conspiracy theories about Japanese government cover-ups. It’s quite sad.

With the blogosphere and the international media encouraging nuclear panic to increase television ratings and website pageviews, people all around the world are rushing to buy iodine. U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin has even apparently succumbed to the hysteria by encouraging Americans to buy iodine tablets as a precaution

(plenty more)

http://www.japanprobe.com/2011/03/16/japan-nuclear-radiation-fear-mongering-vs-facts/

Includes useful links and stuff. Hope that helps.

[jpak]

1. unreccing for the stupid

yup

[Matariki]

2. Read this

http://www.thenation.com/article/159234/fukushimas-spent-fuel-rods-pose-grave-danger

“I’ve been studying overhead photographs of Fukushima. It is very disturbing,” said Robert Alvarez, formerly a senior policy adviser at the Energy Department under Clinton and now a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies.

“The steel wall of the pool seems to show damage. All the surrounding equipment, including the two cranes, has been destroyed. There is smoke coming from reactor No. 3, and steam coming from the spent fuel pool next to it. That indicates that the water in the pool is boiling. And that means the spent fuel rods are getting hot and could start burning.”

If the spent rods start to burn, huge amounts of radioactive material would be released into the atmosphere and would disperse across the Northern Hemisphere.

Unlike the reactors, spent fuel pools are not—repeat not—housed in any sort of hardened or sealed containment structures. Rather, the fuel rods are packed tightly together in pools of water that are often several stories above ground.

[tekisui]

3. It would be laughable if not so serious, Unrec.

[Cetacea]

10. +1

The OP could explain "small amounts" to the fifty who will soon die from exposure.

[frazzled]

4. My nephew in Tokyo has been livid at the reporting

This is damned serious, but the fear-mongering and bad facts have to stop.

[Generic Other]

5. My relatives live closer to the reactor

Their level of fear is pretty real.

[frazzled]

20. Update

Nephew's firm contacted him to say although they are not concerned about the radiation or earthquakes, because people are so freaked out they are moving the company to Osaka for a period, so that people can get work done. This whole thing is a total nightmare. It's like a movie.

[Saboburns]

6. Facts are hard to come by

And seem not to be welcome at this site. Much better to stock up on milk, post bunny pics, and light one's hair on fire. Mebbe even stab yer neighbor for his Iodine pills.

The nuclear situation is unprecedented, there is a huge cause for concern. BUT WHAT IS NEEDED NOW IS DATA, KNOWLEDGE, AND CALM.

There will be time to panic when it's time to panic. That will be when large doses of radiation is actually released. Will that happen?? Certainly likely.

Unfortunately there are many agendas here that negate facts. Much truthiness abounds.

[creeksneakers2]

8. The panic isn't about what has happened

Its about what could happen.

[Prometheus Bound]

11. Please stop with the time-for-panic suggestions.

There is no good time for panic. Panic is a waste of time.

[Saboburns]

16. I would suggest that maybe,

Just maybe having six nuclear reactor failures may be a fine time to start.

Panicking that is.

[Prometheus Bound]

18. Knock yourself out then

I still don't see how it will do you or anyone else any good.

[AKDavy]

7. I almost never unrec, but...

The fear is real, and it's in large part a result of the obvious attempts to limit information flow. Major emergencies managed by industry typically have two emergency response organizations: 1) An Incident Management Team (IMT) composed of technical professional (operations, logistics, planning, finance, command), and 2) a Crisis Management Team (CMT) composed of executives, attorneys and public relations people working to limit liability by controlling the narrative.

The information trickling out is spin from the CMT if I've ever seen it, and I've seen a lot of "crisis management" bullshit in my day.

Watch this situation continue to decay like a radioisotope.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. You made me laugh

I worked the IMT side of it... for a few disasters that has nothing to do with industry. Trust me, the CMT folks would try to control our side, even in the midst of a NATURAL disaster.

Telling the mayor that he was full of it was ahem cathartic...

[AKDavy]

19. It sounds like we've done very similar work

For me, it's been oil spills and several foolborne illness outbreaks.

Politicians are routinely interfering nonproducers who would be better off trusting their technical staff and staying out of the way.

I will say that during the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill the ADEC Commissioner had a very compelling television persona that was the only reason Exxon and the Feds weren't able to sideline state and local government. That's the only instance I can think of where a politician actually produced something of value in an emergency.

[coti]

9. Were there supposed to be some facts included in this OP? nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. I guess nothing to see here

and all is well...

And talking of L-6 disaster, possibly L-7 is lighting head on fire.

Unrec

[Quixote1818]

14. This is old, I saw it this morning before all hell broke lose.

Had tons of FB friends playing things down and now they are all silent.

[The_Casual_Observer]

15. The fact is that nobody knows what the facts are.

However, all along it's gotten a lot worse as it's gone along.

[wonderjust25]

17. no need to fear, but be prepared. nt.