Note: For those following this from an astrological perspective, one chart to start with in understanding anything of a nuclear nature is the Nuclear Axis, which I covered here last weekend. If you want to explore the industry and anti-nuke sites that I’m using to write summaries like this, we have a special page for that — All Things Nuclear.
While the world’s attention has suddenly shifted to the military crisis in Libya (the UN Security Council approved a war there last week), the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in northeastern Japan continues to develop. CBS News said that radiation has reached the Los Angeles area as of yesterday, but says that the levels are a billion times less than can make someone sick. That suggests authorities believe things would still be fine if 999 million times more radiation reached LA, so if you ask them we have a long way to go.
MSNBC: Japan confirmed the presence of radioactive iodine contamination (a core meltdown byproduct) in food products from near a crippled nuclear plant and ordered a halt to their sale, the U.N. nuclear body said on Saturday. “Though radioactive iodine has a short half-life of about 8 days and decays naturally within a matter of weeks, there is a short-term risk to human health if radioactive iodine in food is absorbed into the human body,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.
Here’s how The New York Times put it: “While officials downplayed the immediate risks to consumers, the findings are likely to further unsettle a nation worried about the long-term effects of the damaged nuclear power plants. The crisis, which has entered its second week, has caused alarm in some countries that fallout from Japan might reach their shores.” Wait, people are just figuring this out now? The Times continues:
“Tokyo Electric Power Company, with help from the Japan Self-Defense Force, police and firefighters, continued efforts to cool the damaged reactors on Saturday. About 500 workers from the utility connected a transmission line almost a mile long to Reactor No. 2 at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station. They hope to restart a cooling system there on Sunday.” Comment: this would have been more helpful last weekend. We had better get the Boy Scouts involved helping out.
World Nuclear News, an industry website, also reported that “Radiation levels exceeding the Japanese government-set level have been detected in samples of milk and spinach collected in the region of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. However, the levels measured are said to pose no immediate threat to health.”
No immediate risk? Get out your doublespeak dictionary.