There are many posts on this blog related  to this title.

The Category “nuclear” should list them. Then there is the ‘Page’ “Radiation” offering relevant information and links. This subject is of vital importance to the whole world.  Not by any means complete or definitive but useful.

Just how its priority might be judged against the other  major issues such as the Middle East, the global financial crisis, the Global Warming Scam and the collapse of the US economy and social structure, is difficult to assess.

But for this blog, with Health and Survival as personal priorities, the Japanese disaster is certainly taking the back row.

For these reasons, I would like to direct readers’ attention to the side-bar link section “Nuclear Dangers” for sources of future information on Fukushima and associated news.

Don’t misunderstand me, nuclear power stations and radiation dangers are a serious issue, they might even be the most important threat to our collective survival, one way or another. But, right now, I am trying to cover too big an area of interest, and other interests are more current.

So just to top off the posts (nuclear related) here is an SKF Blogspot post reminding us that official news from TEPCO, Japanese Government and the media is not reliable.

Kan Administration Demanded TEPCO Not Record Kan’s Tirade on March 15, 2011 Over TEPCO’s “Withdrawal” from #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

 

Contrary to what TEPCO’s PR person told the reporters during the media tour of the plant in February, it has turned out that the video and audio copies of the teleconferences between the parties involved (Fukushima I Nuke Plant management, TEPCO HQ, the Japanese government) do exist.
It has also turned out that the Kan administration officials may have instructed TEPCO to delete the audio portion of the contentious meeting in March last year between then-Prime Minister Kan and TEPCO officials where the prime minister threatened TEPCO not to withdraw from the plant.
Denki Shinbunis an industry newspaper covering energy and electricity issues, and it reports on this incident as follows (3/19/2012):

Someone may have instructed TEPCO to stop recording when Mr. Kan angrily confronted TEPCO officials at the TEPCO headquarters
It has been revealed by the source involved that the Prime Minister’s Office may have requested that part of the audio recording to be deleted during the teleconference when then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan visited the TEPCO headquarters on March 15 last year. Mr. Kan seemed possessed with the idea that TEPCO was planning to withdraw completely from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, and was in a state of abnormal excitement. People accompanying Mr. Kan may have been worried that his remarks would be recorded verbatim. It may cause repercussions that part of the record of this historical accident has been lost this way.
According to the investigation commission set up by the National Diet, there is a video of Mr. Kan scolding the TEPCO officials in the TEPCO’s emergency response room on the 2nd floor of the TEPCO headquarters [in Tokyo]. But there is no audio to the video, and the commission has no way of knowing what Mr. Kan said.
According to the sources involved, Mr. Kan pointed the finger to each individual TEPCO official present, saying “Is it you who wanted to flee? Or is it you?” The sources told [this paper] that TEPCO was about to record the event as usual, but one of Kan’s entourage told TEPCO not to record. (extracted from the article on the front page of this paper)

Personally, from what I’ve read from the interim report by the  investigation committee set up by the Cabinet Office, I do not believe TEPCO  intended to do so or that there was anything TEPCO could have done at that point (it took fire fighters to pour water from the fire engine booms to the  spent fuel pools to lower the radiation levels somewhat).
It looks like someone fed the excitable prime minister some incomplete information about TEPCO’s intention. I do not know whether that was intentional or unintentional; it may be the case of “Chinese whispers” game. Asahi Shinbun reported that Takamasa Shimizu, then-President of TEPCO, was desperately trying to reach Minister of Economy Kaieda, not Kan, that day, after the radiation levels in the plant compound spiked to a lethal level.
It has sure helped boost Kan’s standing that he stood up against the villainous TEPCO.

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