Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Wednesday February 22 2017, @02:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the close-to-double dept.

Dissident Voice reports

After a week of limited coverage of "unimaginable levels" of radiation inside the remains of collapsed Unit 2 at Fukushima[...], Nuclear-News.net reported February 11 that radiation levels are actually significantly higher than "unimaginable".

Continuous, intense radiation at 530 sieverts an hour (4 sieverts is a lethal level), was widely reported in early February 2017--as if this were a new phenomenon. It's not. Three reactors at Fukushima melted down during the earthquake-tsunami disaster on March 3, 2011, and the meltdowns never stopped. Radiation levels have been out of control ever since. As Fairewinds Energy Education noted in an email February 10:

Although this robotic measurement just occurred, this high radiation reading was anticipated and has existed inside the damaged Unit 2 atomic reactor since the disaster began nearly 6 years ago.... As Fairewinds has said for 6 years, there are no easy solutions because groundwater is in direct contact with the nuclear corium (melted fuel) at Fukushima Daiichi.

What's new (and not very new, at that) is the official acknowledgment of the highest radiation levels yet measured there, by a factor of seven (the previously measured high was 73 sieverts an hour in 2012). The highest radiation level measured at Chernobyl was 300 sieverts an hour.

[...] This coverage relates only to Unit 2's melted reactor core. There is no reliable news of the condition of the melted reactor cores in two other units.

[...] Whatever is actually going on at Fukushima is not good, and has horrifying possibilities. It is little comfort to have the perpetrator of the catastrophe, TEPCO, in charge of fixing it, especially when the Japanese government is more an enabler of cover-up and denial than any kind of seeker of truth or protector of its people.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by leftover on Wednesday February 22 2017, @03:12AM

    by leftover (2448) on Wednesday February 22 2017, @03:12AM (#469970)

    There are enough small scraps of useful information in this article to suggest there might be a problem at Fukushima. If so, the first thing We the People need is a much better source of information. Few things diminish credibility more than using frantic wording -- unimaginable, horrifying -- in a situation where knowledge and accuracy matter.

    Topics like this are too complex, and too important, to let any knucklehead self-identify as a 'journalist' and start blathering away. Most readers here have probably cringed at reporter's handling of less complex technologies. The times when I have been interviewed then later see the results have been uniformly "interesting", as in unimaginable and horrifying.

    Perhaps the news industry needs to separate itself from the commentary industry and institute a form of standards for reporting difficult subjects. Nuclear issues should require a nuclear engineering degree, reporting on health care should require at least a biology degree and pre-publishing review by licensed doctors in the relevant specialty. These practices would add both time and costs to the current process but would start to make the information usable rather than damaging.

    --
    Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
       Insightful=3, Interesting=1, Total=4
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22 2017, @04:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 22 2017, @04:43AM (#469999)

    Agreed! The media try and do too much "thinking" for us instead of focusing on the facts. However, I'm pretty sure that's not by accident.
    If facts were at the forefront of daily public conversations, you'd see more thoughtful leaders being elected, better journalism, and a smarter population.
    Somebody somewhere must think that's a bad thing (?)

    • (Score: 1) by arcz on Wednesday February 22 2017, @05:23AM

      by arcz (4501) on Wednesday February 22 2017, @05:23AM (#470006) Journal

      Wrong. Somebody must think that 1) hiring people with advanced degrees is more expensive and 2) they can make more money by hiring idiots for less money.
      You assume there is some kind of evil conspiracy. That's not the case, it's just that there is no motivation for advanced journalism. Especially given the people who would read it would just pirate it and not pay for it.