- Fukushima reactor 1 has melted down, fuel rods are fully exposed.
- Reactor 2 was “extremely dangerous right up to the end of March,” say MIT’s Technology Review.
- There was probably a *nuclear* explosion in Reactor 3.
- The reactor 4 building is in danger of toppling over. Very high radiation was coming from it, so Japan’s nuclear agency stopped making the readings public.
Tepco has done practically nothing to prevent further disaster, instead focusing primarily on dissembling the truth
All this and more from Washington’s Blog.
Operator of Japan’s stricken nuclear plant has been “going round and round in circles” using the wrong approach
That’s putting it charitably. Tepco has lied, distorted the truth, covered up, and has thus put countless lives at risk. For a culture with a high value on not being shamed, it’s clear Tepco executives have no shame. They are simply criminals. Hey, Goldman Sachs is a loathsome entity that has destroyed thousands of financial lives. But to my knowledge even the vampire squid has never deliberately endangered the lives of millions. Tepco has. And Japanese government has mostly stood idly by and done nothing.
Three nuclear containment vessels leaking in Japan … But U.S. law is based on assumption that it is impossible for containment vessels to leak
Lest you think I’m Japan-bashing, let me hasten to add that US nuclear regulatory agencies are equally compromised, corrupted, and cosy with those they pretend to regulate.
Japan’s latest proposal to contain Fukushima’s radioactive fallout – A (circus) tent
You just can’t make this up…
The absolute best sources for Fukushima news are Washington’s Blog and Zero Hedge, ostensibly libertarian financial blogs. The MSM certainly is asleep on this and most of the blogosphere isn’t much better.
As an American, I found one of the most frustrating things about working in Sri Lanka to be that in its culture it is more important to give the right answer (the answer you want to hear) than to tell the truth. “Can you do this by tomorrow?” They will say yes every time, even when they have no intention of trying, because yes is the “right” answer. Traditional Japanese culture is in some ways even more adverse to the truth – embarrassing oneself or others is unthinkable.
Many cultures have a less-direct relationship with the truth than we do, although with our politics one has to wonder how much the truth really matters even to us. (Certainly OUR government has never lied about the existence or dangers of nuclear fallout! Much.)
I happen to oppose nuclear power for many of the very reasons we have seen become reality in Japan. Still, this begs the question: To what degree can we criticize another culture for its flexible relationship with the truth? Do we have the right to tell a country that it can’t play with dangerous and potentially technologies unless it adopts our cultural standards? Or is that just another form of imperialism?
I criticize the government here too. Japan can have whatever cultural standards it wants but its callous disregard for the truth combined with almost complete ineptness dealing with the crisis puts their economy and by implication the world economy at risk, not to mention the huge and growing worldwide health hazards from the radiation.
The problem is corporatism and its stranglehold on governments. We have plenty of that here too.