Wednesday, August 21, 2013

One of the least reported stories of the last few months...here at least

I imagine it has received more coverage in parts of Asia.

Japan's nuclear crisis escalated to its worst level in two years on Wednesday, with its nuclear watchdog saying it feared more tanks were leaking contaminated water and China expressing its shock over the disaster.

Japan's nuclear regulator also said it feared the disaster exceeded the ability of the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co, to cope "in some respects".

A spokesman for the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) said earlier on Wednesday the agency plans to upgrade the severity of the crisis from a level 1 "anomaly" to a level three "serious incident" on an international scale for radiological releases.

Such a move would be the most serious action taken since the plant was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

"Any way you look at it, this is deplorable," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular news conference on Wednesday. "The government will make every effort to halt the leak of contaminated water as soon as possible."

5 comments:

Montag said...

Geez, guys, get up to speed. The Fukushima disaster has been spewing radiation hither and yon for over two fucking years, the fucking roofs of the reactor buildings blew off in hydrogen explosions, the cores have melted down, half of Japan is eating cesium sandwiches and drinking strontium shakes, the whales in the North Pacific are telling each other "don't eat the krill that glows" and the regulatory agency responsible is just now saying that it's a "serious incident?"

Motherfucker, you gotta be kidding me. And I thought the NRC was bad.

Anonymous said...

"The government will make every effort..."

Color me skeptical; especially in a country where face and reputation matter more than life.

Anonymous said...

'...exceeded the ability of the plant's operator...to cope "in some respects..."' sounds suspiciously like Hirohito conceding World War II [hadn't] worked out necessarily to "our advantage."



pansypoo said...

i hope they enjoy their sushi.

feralcrj said...

i'm with montag on this. if a nuclear fukup like the last 2 yrs can't make the world take notice, then the world won't be ending in either a bang or a whimper, it'll be drowned in indifference and right wing talking points...

maybe as a species we're already too stupid to live!