Political Remarks of the Day from Goshi Hosono, Ichiro Matsui (Governor of Osaka)

The former we've known long enough to not to expect brilliant comments from. The latter teams up with the boy-wonder mayor of Osaka City (who is being set up as the next prime minister - the horror, the horror) and is eager to accept disaster debris to Osaka and burn and bury in the Osaka Bay.

First, Goshi Hosono, Minister of the Environment and Minister in charge of the nuclear accident, from Yomiuri Shinbun (5/12/2012):

福島は核燃料最終処分場の適地でない…細野氏

Fukushima is not suited to become the final disposal site for nuclear fuel, Mr. Hosono says

細野環境相は１２日、福島県郡山市で、東京電力福島第一原子力発電所が立地する同県大熊町からの避難住民を対象に開かれた政府主催説明会に出席した。

On May 12, Minister of the Environment Hosono attended the meeting in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture with the residents who evacuated from Okuma-machi, where Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is located.

　同町を含む双葉郡８町村について、参加住民から「日本の核燃料の最終処分場になる可能性があるのではないか」との懸念が出されたが、細野氏は「福島では大きな津波があり、最終処分場の適地ではない」と明確に否定した。

The residents expressed worries to Mr. Hosono that the final disposal site for nuclear fuel in Japan may be built somewhere in the Futaba-gun's 8 municipalities including Okuma-machi. Mr. Hosono definitely denied the possibility, saying "Fukushima was hit by a big tsunami, and therefore it is not suited to become the final disposal site."

Ummm. All of Japan's nuclear reactors are located right on the ocean, and just about the entire Japanese archipelago is full of active faults running through it. There are plate junctions capable of producing large earthquakes and tsunami.

Next, Governor of Osaka Ichiro Matsui tweets, trying to convince people in Osaka that the disaster debris from Tohoku is totally free of plutonium:

瓦礫処理について、誤解されている方が多いようですが、岩手県に福島原発事故による、プルトニウムの飛散はありません。プルトニウムは比重が重く遠距離飛散は確認されていません。

Many people seem to misunderstand about the debris disposal. But plutonium from the Fukushima Nuclear Plant accident didn't reach Iwate. Plutonium's specific gravity is large, and it is not confirmed to have flown a long distance.

Uh... Researchers have found Fukushima-origin plutonium in Lithuania. (Maybe Lithuania is located just south of Fuku I Plant?)

I don't think the Ministry of Education and Science ever tested the soil samples for plutonium outside Fukushima and southern Miyagi. But that shouldn't deter these politicians (or the radiation/nuclear experts for that matter) from declaring one thing or another. If they keep repeating it, sooner or later it will become "true", particularly in the post-Fukushima Japan.

Tweet