The Japanese and U.S. Governments withheld vital information
from their citizens about the direction and risks of Fukushima radiation
fallout:
An
interim report produced by the Japanese Government found that the government
delayed relaying vital information to the public about the seriousness of the
meltdowns and the radiation releases.
• Kageyama,
Yuri (2011, December 260. Japan probe finds nuclear disaster response failed.
The Associated Press. Available: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jJMKHqE_ffiXqRQKfiRIArgaojBw?docId=38cf0057befd494a98dac1dccbcf47c7
• Japan’s
Executive Summary of the Interim Report found here
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-26/fukushima-probe-highlights-nuclear-regulator-in-list-of-nuclear-failures.html
Japan used a system called Speedi—System for Prediction of
Environmental Emergency Dose information—to model March radiation releases and
blamed the delay in reporting results to the public in mid-April to their
efforts to narrow the margin of error in their calculations, although nuclear
regulators in other countries were privy to Speedi’s results early on.
• In
July, the Atomic Energy Society of Japan publicly criticized the Japanese
government and TEPCO for delays in reporting Speedi data to the public:
– the
society notes that there is the possibility that the damage to people's health
from radiation exposure has increased because the government, Tepco and related
institutions did not properly disclose information on the status of the nuclear
accidents and the environmental contamination by radioactive substances..
• An example that surfaced recently is the
education and science ministry's failure to immediately disclose the name of a
radiation hot spot in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture.
• Hiroko
Tabuchi, Keith Bradsher, and Andrew Pollack “Japanese Officials on Defensive as
Nuclear Alert Level Rises,” The New York Times (2011, April 13): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/world/asia/13japan.html.
• Tabuchi,
Bradsher, and Pollack “Japanese Officials on Defensive,” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/world/asia/13japan.html
• “Nuclear
Accident Disclosure,” Japan Times (2011, July 8):
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ed20110708a1.html.
Japan's Meteorological Society Censored Data. From Japan Economic Newswire April 29, 2011 Friday 12:47 PM GMT
"Weather chief draws flak over plea not to release radiation forecasts"\
excerpted
– “The
chief of the Meteorological Society of Japan has drawn flak from within the
academic society over a request for member specialists to refrain from
releasing forecasts on the spread of radioactive substances from the troubled
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
– Niino
later said in commenting on the intention he had in issuing the statement,
"If (society members') forecasts were announced, it would have carried the
risk that ordinary people may panic.“
– In
this new statement, he said the principle of keeping information sources
unified "should be applied when a country is going through a critical
situation" and "should not be applied now that the release of radioactive
substances has been prolonged.“
– The
controversy over Niino's statements came to light when a series of delays in
the release by the government of information related to the spread of
radioactive substances have come under intense public scrutiny.” [end excerpt]
Japan failed to distribute potassium iodide as a function of
the unwillingness of the national government to acknowledge the scope of the
disaster. Fukushima area municipal entities had supplies of potassium iodide pills but the Japanese disaster
manuals stipulated that local officials wait for orders from the national
government to distribute.
• Tokyo
waited 5 days after Mar 11 before ordering distribution
WSJ writes: “The failure to disburse the preventive pills
follows other examples of how the Japanese government failed to implement
available measures aimed at protecting local residents from the harms of
radiation” Hayashi, Y. (2011, September 29). “Japan Officials Failed to Hand
Out Radiation Pills in Quake’s Aftermath
This simple 1 minute form will let you add your voice to the anti-nukes. Money drives nukes, and greed. This battle will be won on emotions and money. Radiation is invisible, you just won't be able to convince that many people of the danger.
ReplyDeleteWin with emotions and money. Make nuke more expensive to build and operate. Delay the build whenever possible. That scares investors, because their ROI calcs no longer work. And when the payback is delayed, investors get skittish.
http://nukepimp.blogspot.com/2012/02/greenpeace-send-message-to-washington.html