Japan feared 'demonic chain reaction' at reactor, report says
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-japan-earthquake-nuclear-20120229,0,3974700.story?track=lat-pickReporting from Seoul— A new report vividly portrays the Japanese government's fears in the first hours and days after the March 11, 2011, tsunami overran a coastal nuclear power plant, including concerns that officials might have to evacuate Tokyo.
The government was afraid that a "demonic chain reaction" would ensue after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, even as it assured the public that all was under control, according to the report by the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a private policy group.
At one point, advisors to then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan began referring to a worst-case scenario that would not only force the evacuation of tens of millions of Tokyo residents, but could also cause widespread environmental damage across Japan, the report says. At the same time, Kan's staff continued to assure the Japanese public and the international community that the situation was under control.
When the nuclear plant was struck by a wall of water after an earthquake hit northeastern Japan on the afternoon of March 11, Kan ordered workers to remain at the devastated facility, fearing that thousands of spent fuel rods stored at a damaged reactor would melt and spew radiation after a hydrogen explosion at an adjacent reactor, the report says.
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the devil is real
= new reply since forum marked as read
I shouldn't need this but here goes 
There's a major technological incident going on as a result of a major geological
event and the government talks in terms of superstition ...
It would be really sad if a lot of other people around the world hadn't been
equally apocalyptic in their rantings but it merely turns out to be amusing
instead.
develop cancer later in life due to the radiation they've been exposed to? Just because the nuclear industry says it ain't so does not the truth it make. 
... isn't the increase in people developing cancer in later life (as that's been trumpeted
left, right & centre for ages) but the more than 15,000 actual fatalities that have been
brushed under the carpet as they haven't been newsworthy enough for most people to
remember.
The sadly amusing thing that I referred to (as you know) was that a supposedly
technologically advanced government was "afraid that a 'demonic chain reaction'
would ensue".
You know what I think of the corrupt & short-sighted people in the nuclear industry
and I know full well that "Just because the nuclear industry says it ain't so does not
the truth it make".
The expected increase in cancer rates wasn't what I was laughing at in my previous post
but, in the grand scheme of things, it is still positively hilarious compared to the way that
those who have already suffered have been forgotten so quickly.
... but have a good day (& weekend) yourself!
