Japan Tries to Explain Delays in Reporting Radiation

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Times

This article is by Keith Bradsher, Hiroko Tabuchi and Andrew Pollack.

TOKYO — Japanese officials struggled through the day on Tuesday to explain why it had taken them a month to disclose large-scale releases of radioactive material in mid-March at a crippled nuclear power plant, as the government and an electric utility disagreed on the extent of continuing problems there.

The government announced Tuesday morning that it had raised its rating of the severity of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station to 7, the worst on an international scale, from 5. Officials said that the reactor had released one-tenth as much radioactive material as the Chernobyl accident in 1986, but still qualified as a 7 according to a complex formula devised by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Japan’s new assessment was based largely on computer models showing very heavy emissions of radioactive iodine and cesium from March 14 to 16, just after the earthquake and tsunami rendered the plant’s emergency cooling system inoperative. The nearly monthlong delay in acknowledging the extent of these emissions is a fresh example of confused data and analysis from the Japanese, and put the authorities on the defensive about whether they have delayed or blocked the release of information to avoid alarming the public.

Seiji Shiroya, a commissioner of Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission, an independent government panel that oversees the country’s nuclear industry, said that the government had delayed issuing data on the extent of the radiation releases because of concern that the margins of error had been large in initial computer models. But he also suggested a public policy reason for having kept quiet.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/13/world/asia/13japan.html?_r=1&partner=EXCITE&ei=5043

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David Guttenfelder/Associated Press

A Japanese policeman wearing a protective radiation suit watched as his colleagues loaded a body into a van on Thursday in the Odaka area of Minamisoma, inside the evacuation zone established around the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

[Zoeisright]

1. There are no explanations. Only excuses.

And it's too late for that.

[AndyTiedye]

5. And Lies

They think that we are all ignorant because we do not love nukes like they do.
They figure we do not deserve the truth so they give us lies instead.

[Imagevision]

2. Guess they didn't want to cause a panic?

[Ghost Dog]

7. Public Policy.

What that means.

[rocktivity]

3. Candidate for this Year's "You Call This NEWS?" Award

Remember when they re-opened Ground Zero 9/11 knowing that the air was still too toxic?

:eyes:
rocktivity

[aquart]

4. Very well.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. I thought there was something fishy going on

how much radioactivity is coming here?

[defendandprotect]

8. If this is where they are now -- what more is going on we don't kinow -- ?