Goshi Hosono on NHK, Trying to Spin Radiation Exposure in #Fukushima Last Year, Ooi Restart This Year

Goshi Hosono, Minister of the Environment and Minister in charge of nuclear accident, and former personal assistant to former PM Naoto Kan when the Fukushima nuclear accident started, appeared on NHK's program "Close-Up Gendai" on June 18, 2012. Here's the segment where he blurts out a story he must have carefully memorized (in an occasionally mangled speech) to impress the NHK viewers on the sincerity of the government when it says Ooi Nuclear Power Plant is safe.

In it, Hosono speaks of radiation exposure "kindly experienced by the residents" of Namie-machi, Fukushima Prefecture.

I transcribed what Hosono said in the video and translated below.

First he briefly talks about the restart of Ooi Nuclear Power Plant:

すべてが出来ているとは申しません。課題があるのは事実です。しかし、今の段階でやれることは国もやっているし、そして地元の福井県もやっていただいてるというように、思っています。

I am not saying we've done everything. It is true that there are problems. However, all that can be done at this stage is being done by the national government, and the local prefecture, Fukui Prefecture, is also kindly doing it, I believe.

The first two sentences seem true enough. But the third? From the governor of Fukui Prefecture, we know that all Fukui Prefecture did was to rubber stamp what the "experts" said, and to rely on the word of the KEPCO president that he would try his best. Hosono says everything that can be done is being done, and that is what he believes. What if he's wrong? "Out of expectation" - 想定外 (soh-tei-gai) of course.

Then he refers to the residents of Namie-machi in Fukushima in particular, and says he cannot forget about them:

あのー、特に浪江町の方々のことがですね、私頭から離れないんですよ。あの時１０キロ、そして２０キロという避難のですね、判断をしたわけですけれども、政府は。その時にあの、きちっと方角を示すべきだったのが示されなかったと。あのそこでたくさん被曝をしていただいたという状況ではない、と言うことはですね、後ほど確認は出来ましたが、それを経験をした皆さんの思いというのはですね、我々はほんとに忘れてはならないと思ってます。

Uh, about people in Namie-machi, I cannot help thinking about them. Back then [first few days of the nuclear crisis], first 10-kilometer, then 20-kilometer evacuation areas were determined and set, by the national government. At that time, uh, the direction [in which Namie-residents should evacuate] should have been given but it wasn't. Uh, it's not that much radiation exposure was kindly experienced by the residents, that we were able to confirm later. But the thoughts and feelings of people who experienced it, I think we should never forget.

Again, the first two sentences seem true enough. It was the government under PM Kan whom he served as a personal advisor who confidently (at that time, I remember) declared 10 kilometer-radius evacuation zone was more than sufficient, and the further away people went from the crippled plant the far less risk they would have from radiation exposure. Hosono now says the government should have told the residents which direction to go. Well it did. It told the residents to move as far away from the plant as they reasonably could, i.e. all directions.

As to whether Namie-machi residents were exposed to much radiation, I don't believe it has been "confirmed". There is no meaningful data on early radiation exposure suffered by the residents in Fukushima Prefecture, because government officials, from the national government on down, didn't allow researchers to conduct a meaningful survey of enough people in the early days and weeks of the accident. Namie-machi is where the radiation level of 330 microsieverts/hour were measured on March 15, 2011 by an official from the Ministry of the Education and Science. Not only many Namie residents remained for weeks after the start of the accident, but they were eating the food and drinking water that were contaminated, without knowing.

Then, Hosono tries to reassure the audience by mentioning the special surveillance system for Ooi Nuclear Power Plant:

だからこそですね、政府としては特別な監視体制というのをひいてまして、えーしっかりと原発の状況をですね、政府として、えー監視をするということをやってます。そして、あの、事故がないという状況を作らなければなりませんが、万万が一、なんらかのトラブルがあった場合は、それをそれぞれの自治体にですね、的確に情報が伝わるような仕組みも作っているんですね。

For that very reason, the national government is implementing the special surveillance system [for Ooi Nuke Plant], uh, to closely monitor the situation at the nuclear plant. And, uh, we have to create a situation of no accident, but if by any remote chance there is a trouble, we are building a system so that the accurate information will reach the affected municipalities.

We also know what this "special surveillance system" that Hosono is talking about. It is the Ooi Nuke Plant Off-Site Center, 7 kilometers away from the plant, at the foot of the peninsula where the nuclear power plant is located, manned by the senior vice minister from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry assisted by a KEPCO vice president and NISA bureaucrats, all of whom will be babysat by managers from the plant manufacturers. Just like the Off-Site Center for Fukushima I Nuke Plant, everything relies on the electricity not cut off even in the case of a severe accident.

Hosono looks as if he doesn't understand anything he is saying. The female interviewer, a veteran announcer at NHK I think, is not there to ask questions but to help Hosono along so that he can regurgitate what he's been fed as quickly as possible.

(H/T anon reader for the video)

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