Radiation Bulletin: Fukushima News: June 20th – 26th 2011

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The news out of Japan is getting is spurting around lately. There is still very little attempt to be critical of the nuclear industry in Japan, and few investigative pieces are coming out.

First off, Japan released an early assessment of how much it will cost to rebuild from the Tohoku Quake: $210 billion. I would suggest that they are off the mark substantially when the long term costs of Fukushima are factored in. Estimates at Chernobyl are all over the place, but lets just say that accident cost at least $200-300 billion. TEPCo has also announced that it will be handing out $1.1 billion to evacuees for mental distress or about $100 a month for the next 6 months and then $50 afterwords for an unknown period.

In a recent NHK video, we witnessed the public be indoctrinated into the standard US/IAEA agenda of making claims that there will be no real dangers to the public from fallout, or more to the point, worrying about the radiation is actually worse than the radiation. In the meantime, don’t eat anything.

As a result of several new polls showing a huge global shift opposing nuclear power, we are now seeing a whole new round of PR (Marching orders for new safety) by the IAEA and other countries.

In what would be the kind of standard media counter strategy, just as the left posted a telling history of how the US played a key role in promoting the development of nuclear power in Japan, out comes a watered down version in the NY Times. Very important details like the fact that Japan’s largest newspaper Asahi Shimbum was owned by the head of the country’s nuclear power industry, and surprise is now doing editorials about the need to keep nuclear power as a part of the country’s power mix.

Getting personal

Rather than speculating on what’s happening in Japan on the ground, Katz Ueno has been doing a regular English show on what’s happening around Fukushima. In update 41, he starts out with a dance performance that was done to cheer up residents, then moves onto to other stories. Of concern was the story about how the city of Minimimosa that is a very short distance is going ahead with normal life, cleaning up quake and Tsunami damages, in spite of radiation levels. The show is very informal and goes on for an hour and half. Katz’ report mentions that 35 of the 54 reactors are currently shut down and under public pressure to stay closed. There are just under 125,000 people still evacuated due to Fukushima with more people being asked to leave heavily contaminated areas starting in the last week.

Sunday, June 26, 2011