Saturday, January 21, 2012

Kan Administration Declared the Fukushima Accident Worst-Case Scenario Report "Didn't Exist" After Reading It

The news of the worst-case scenario report submitted to the Kan administration by the Japan Atomic Energy Commission in March last year has already been reported, as I wrote on my January 2 post, but a little bit more information is coming from Kyodo News now.

It turns out that the Kan administration not only sat on the report detailing the worst-case scenario of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident, but it declared the report wouldn't exist from then on, and didn't even officially recognize its existence as part of the government documents until December last year when the news of the report finally leaked. On the New Year's Eve.

So the core administration officials did the "three monkeys" - see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil - on the worst nuclear accident in the country, if not in the world while telling the citizens and the world everything was under control, that it was safe to play outside, that there was no meltdown at Fukushima, and attacking people who said otherwise as "fear-monger".

Kyodo News has a slightly different description of this incident in Japanese than in English. In the English version, the news agency simply says the administration kept the worst case scenario under wraps for months. But the Kyodo Japanese News reveals more.

From Kyodo News Japanese (1/21/2012):

東京電力福島第1原発事故で作業員全員が退避せざるを得なくなった場合、放射性物質の断続的な大量放出が約1年続くとする「最悪シナリオ」を記した文書が昨年3月下旬、当時の菅直人首相ら一握りの政権幹部に首相執務室で示された後、「なかったこと」として封印され、昨年末まで公文書として扱われていなかったことが21日分かった。複数の政府関係者が明らかにした。

The document that detailed the "worst-case scenario" in which radioactive materials would be released intermittently in large quantities for about a year if all the workers at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant were to be evacuated was shown to a handful of officials in the Kan administration, including Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in the Prime Minister's Office in late March. But the report, after being shown to the administration officials, was sealed as "the report did not exist", and was not even treated as part of the official government documents until the end of last year. It was revealed by the multiple government sources on January 21.

 民間の立場で事故を調べている福島原発事故独立検証委員会(委員長・北沢宏一前科学技術振興機構理事長)も、菅氏や当時の首相補佐官だった細野豪志原発事故担当相らの聞き取りを進め経緯を究明。

The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (Commissioner Koichi Kitazawa, former chief of Japan Science and Technology Agency) , a private-sector panel looking into the nuclear disaster plans to probe how the government was handling the crisis, by interviewing then-Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Goshi Hosono, who was the adviser to Kan and was in charge of handling the nuclear accident at that time.

For reference, here's what's available from Kyodo News English for non-subscribers:

The government kept a worst case scenario for the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant under wraps for months after the document was shown to a small group of policymakers in late March, government sources said Saturday.

A private-sector panel looking into the nuclear disaster plans to probe whether the government tried to manipulate information in handling the crisis, by interviewing then Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Goshi Hosono, environment minister who was then adviser to Kan, among other figures. Hosono was in charge of handling the nuclear crisis.

The document, created by Japan Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo at Kan's request, said that in a worst case scenario, radioactive materials would intermittently be released in massive quantities for roughly a year if all workers had to be evacuated from the plant, some 220 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

Radioactive materials have intermittently released for nearly a year, both into the atmosphere and into rivers and the Pacific Ocean.

As you see in the photo below, the report was neatly presented, with colored charts and graphs. Let's see if anyone in the media or the government cares to upload this report.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any follow up on the explosions at #4 and the helicopters. Also wondering about the seals that they were checking for radiation...

Anonymous said...

Quiet as a tomb....

Anonymous said...

Elected officials can be unelected just as fast. If it were a simple person's job and they did it badly they would be fired, they have put millions of people's lives in danger through a "hope" for better times, this will not occur, and now they must step down and allow those that have the willpower to fix things to take control of those failing departments.

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 3:23
I wish you were right. But no one has an idea how to fix this problem-nor the will to face the facts and what that means for the nuclear industry in Japan. They can't even bring themselves to admit that it was the QUAKE which buggered Fukushima and then the tsunami finished it off. I bet they are thanking their lucky stars for the Tsunami-it lets them off the hook. Truth is that anything over 6.0 could rupture ANY of the remaining nuclear power installations. This is the real worry and why most of them are now 'off line', imho.
Anyone in charge of the nuke industry and or their whores in the political parties know that an admission of the truth signals 'GAME OVER' for Japan as we know it.
All part of the paradigm shift, wriggle and resist, deny, extend and pretend, keep the same game going as long as poss, because no one wants to face the next phase. 'Inspire the next' indeed. Or not.
By the by, Japan managing very nicely without nuclear power so far. Anyone noticed we have nearly ALL the nuclear power stations off line?

Credit to Areva for this blog. Where would we be without it?

Finally I am reminded of Michio Kaku's early comment that 'the Japanese (gov) just wish this will blow away-disappear like every other problem'. 3 Monkeys indeed.

Where oh where is the GREEN party in all of this?

Anonymous said...

Interesting documentry starring Fukushima dai ichi back in the 1980s, some problem happened back then it seems

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lvvCEVF7vg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Worth watching but its only in Japanese..

Atomfritz said...

Very good points, @ anon 5:27.

This 3-monkey-phenomenon really makes me worry for later generations.

It is not a specific Japanese phenomenon, however.

The german test final storage for nuclear wastes in a salt mine in central Germany's highlands is at high risk to be flooded by water break-ins in a few years.
The nuclear waste stored there must be taken out asap.
But the bureaucracy tries to delay this until it is no longer possible to retrieve the waste stored in there.

If the waste there cannot be retrieved, this would poison the central german aquifers in the long term.

But the petty politicians and bureaucrats don't want to talk about this potentially catastrophic "non-fact".
They hide behind nit-picking about marginal theoretical questions of workers' safety regulations when actually the population as whole is in danger.

rpd said...

Without your blog, Arevmirpal, the rest of the world who is not speaking/reading japanese would have remained in the dark.
Thank you very, very much EX-SKF.

Anonymous said...

I note the fact that ALL the Nuklear sites in Japan is off gridd, if its true, then Nuklear ind. is dead.
Lett it die, and sue the rest of this planet.

The secand fact is decontamination. Fukushima is gone, deal with it, its going to be centurys before is "safe" if Japan is lucky.
Fukushima is the only natural place to dump waist, simply because its already a nuklear waistland.

Fearmongerin, some of us instantly recognised the real deal, the chinasyndromes, it all even started after 48minutes. That all it takes before its beyound rescue. Thats why Nuklear ind. must perish from the face of our Earth.

And its a hollw "victory" to have it confimed, the problem is that they are lying still, all the time. They have so far lied on everything.

Good work, ex-skf, you see when our spine tels us its dangerous, never dubt, until its proven opositt, this was it. They never managed to convince us at all.

Be viligant, its not even over, there are issues that can dwarf, all the radiation so far.

peace

a female Faust said...

i have been looking for the original dox for hours now -- had no idea -- never guessed -- that, despite being 'leaked,' they simply had not been released.

amazing. disgusting.

thank you Arevamirpal (round these parts nicknamed Ultraman): the praise that is echoed above does not do it justice, really. my 'thank you' neither: but it will have to.

will certainly post a link should i find one.

Anonymous said...

Didn't the worst case scenario include the evacuation of Tokyo? Panic? Case closed.

Atomfritz, everyone shares the wealth. Back in June 1000 tons of waste was shipped from Germany to Oak Ridge to be incinerated.

Anonymous said...

"worst case scenario", like this ?

http://enenews.com/report-tokyo-tap-water-in-crisis-comes-from-area-that-is-radioactive-as-chernobyls-contaminated-areas-100000-300000-bqkg

Anonymous said...

Please don't post ignorant, fear-mongering article from Fukushima Diary.

Okutama River only makes up 19% of Tokyo's water source, and the MEXT map shows the Okutama Lake area with 10K to 30K becquerels/square meter, not 100K to 300K as the article claims.

Anonymous said...

"Please don't post ignorant, fear-mongering article from Fukushima Diary. "

Your request is being processed.

Please note that Mochizuki does not publish the Japan Times.

http://enenews.com/japan-times-unusually-high-amount-fallout-okutama-tokyo-300000-bqm-1-usvhr-home-worlds-largest-drinking-water-reservoir-kind-built-supply-tokyo

Anonymous said...

"Please note that Mochizuki does not publish the Japan Times."

Sure he doesn't, thank God.

The Japan Times writer does not say stupid things like Tokyo's tap water in crisis.

Anonymous said...

2:18,

I'll take it that your comment was a display of what we'll call Cavitation Logic.

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