IAEA: "Contaminated Water from #Fukushima to Reach US West Coast Next Year"

Oh that's lovely.

But no need to worry, the IAEA tells us, the level of radioactive materials will be so low there will be no effect on human health. Sorry, fish. I guess they are nuclear scientists and not biologists who know the term "bioconcentration".

Also, the IAEA fully endorses TEPCO's "roadmap" as "well-thought, good plan". No kidding. I guess they do not have a certificate in project management either, if they can praise the roadmap without any detailed timeline, budgeting, man-power allocations, task dependency, etc.

From NHK World (5/6/2011):

The International Atomic Energy Agency says radioactive water leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan may reach the West Coast of North America in one or 2 years.

The nuclear watchdog held a briefing for member countries in Vienna on Thursday on the current situation at the plant, which has not been brought under control since the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

The IAEA said that, based on an analysis of data provided by Japan and other sources, the contaminated water may spread across the Pacific on the Kuroshio current, and reach the coast of North America by next year at the earliest.

It also said traces of Cesium 134 and Cesium 137 leaking from the plant may be measured around the Pacific in 2 or 3 years, but at levels so low as to be of no threat to human health.

IAEA Deputy Director General Denis Flory referred to a roadmap to bring the plant under control, released last month by Tokyo Electric Power Company. He favorably assessed the plan and said the IAEA will closely monitor how it is implemented.

Friday, May 06, 2011 10:51 +0900 (JST)

Now, with the egregious mistake that NHK WORLD made (and still hasn't corrected) in mind, I checked the NHK Japanese. This time, English is slightly understating the original Japanese news (I do believe the original news was in Japanese, considering the awkward English). For bold-letter parts in the English text above, here's the Japanese equivalent translated into English by me:

早ければ来年にもアメリカ西海岸沖に到達するという見方を示しました。
reach the west coast of the United States as early as next year.

東京電力が全力を傾けて練り上げたもので、よい計画だ。
TEPCO came up with the plan after long deliberation and much consideration. It is a good plan.

Did Mr. Flory actually say that?

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