#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Japanese Government Turned Down Offer for Help from US Government

Government kills. I don't have anything more to add.

From Yomiuri Shinbun (in Japanese, 8:12AM JST, 3/18/2011):

A senior official of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) disclosed yesterday that the Japanese government [headed by their party leader Naoto Kan] had turned down the offer for help from the US government regarding the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.

According to the official, the US government offered help as soon as the damage on Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant was known after the March 11 earthquake. However, the US government's offer was based on the premise that the reactor(s) would be killed. The Japanese government and TEPCO believed it was possible to repair the cooling facilities, and probably declined the offer as "too radical".

Some in the government and the DPJ point out that if Prime Minister Kan had accepted the US government offer for help at that point, they might have averted the serious current crisis at the Nuclear Plant involving explosions and radiation leak.

A similar incident took place in the Kobe earthquake of 1995. After the raging fire destroyed a district in Kobe, the chief of the fire department in charge of that district faced harsh criticism as he didn't order the fire engines to draw sea water to extinguish fire. His answer? Sea water would have damaged the pumps of his fire engines.

Government kills. Period.

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