Anybody who
has lived in hurricane alley knows—it’s not the wind, it’s the water. And
unbelievably, the backup generators were located in the basement of the
buildings. Oh, and while there was a sea wall in place to protect against
tsunamis, it wasn’t high enough, since nobody imagined….
You
remember what happened—or
if you don’t, you can see it in the video below. It was, as my mother would
deem it, a shambles. And then, the day after the tsunami, some 300,000 people
were evacuated; the area around the nuclear plants to this day remains
evacuated, and it will likely be years, or perhaps decades, before anybody can
live there again.
There was,
at the time, real concern about whether the world—not to mention the Japanese
themselves—were getting the real information about what was happening in the
plants. Part of that is that the plants had no electricity: workers were using
car batteries to take vital measurements, such as radiation levels and pressure
levels.
Ah, guys?
Car batteries? This, as my brother would say, does not inspire confidence.
The plants
were—and still are—being run by a company called Tokyo Electric
Power Company (TEPCO), which understandably was scrambling to put the best
face on the matter. They were reluctant to say that the situation was
essentially out of hand, and getting worse by the minute.
Into this
picture sails—quite literally—the USS Ronald Reagan,
who were first responders and who spent four days in the area. Here’s one account
of what happened….
Meanwhile sailors like Lindsay Cooper have contrasted their
initial and subsequent feelings upon seeing and tasting metallic
“radioactive snow” caused by freezing Pacific air that mixed with
radioactive debris.
“We joked about it: ‘Hey, it’s radioactive snow!” Cooper said.
“My thyroid is so out of whack that I can lose 60 to 70 pounds in one month and
then gain it back the next. My menstrual cycle lasts for six months at a time,
and I cannot get pregnant.
“It’s
ruined me.”
In
fact, the lawyer representing the sailors reports that of the 71, half of them
are suffering from cancer.
The
lawyer, you ask? Why do the sailors have a lawyer?
Do
I really have to answer that?
Well,
the sailors put in, in some cases, 18-hour shifts, and then left after four
days. Then what happened? Japan refused them entry into the harbor. Oh, so did
South Korea. And also, unbelievably, Guam. So the USS Ronald Reagan drifted
around at sea for two and a half months.
Here’s
the same source’s description of the ship:
Senior
Chief Michael Sebourn, a radiation-decontamination officer assigned to test the
aircraft carrier, said that radiation levels measured 300 times
higher than what was considered safe at one point.
There’s
always been controversy about TEPCO, which had been dumping and denying
radioactive water it the Pacific for months; they later admitted it.
Which
they may no longer have to do. Why? Because Japan has passed—apparently, the
Internet decided to drift off somewhere…—a state
secrets act, and what happens if a journalist or a leaker like Snowden blows the
whistle? Up to five years in the can. Here’s
Reuters
on the subject:
Media
watchdogs fear the law would seriously hobble journalists' ability to
investigate official misdeeds and blunders, including the collusion between
regulators and utilities that led to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
A probe by an
independent parliamentary panel found that collusion between regulators and the
nuclear power industry was a key factor in the failure to prevent the meltdowns
at Tokyo Electric Power Co's (Tepco) tsunami-hit Fukushima plant in March 2011,
and the government and the utility remain the focus of criticism for their
handling of the on-going crisis.
Tepco has
often been accused of concealing information about the crisis and many details
have first emerged in the press. In July, Tepco finally admitted to massive
leaks of radiation-contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean after months of
media reports and denials by the utility.
Oh, and who
gets to determine the secrets? Top departmental officials of the government.
The
documentary below features one authority who says that everything is fine—the
fish is safe to eat and the ocean is safe for swimming even in Japan. So not to
worry, readers in California who might want to go to the beach.
Me?
I’d stick
to the pool….
