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Japanese, foreign media allowed into Fukushima nuclear plant

27 Comments
By David Guttenfelder

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27 Comments
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This seems to be the result of the visit for NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/world/devastation-at-japan-site-seen-up-close.html?ref=science

Not really falling in the propaganda trap, but failing deeper investigation and asking the really difficult questions.

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In the compound, there are still places with high radiation levels. Buses carrying journalists passed through areas where radiation levels were measured to be low.

Despite that, however, some reporters' dosimeters issued warning alarms when the buses neared the No. 3 reactor building. When a TEPCO employee measured the radiation level there, it showed one millisievert (1,000 microsieverts) per hour.

TEPCO employees continued to monitor radiation levels in the buses during the reporters' visit. The figures continued to rise from several tens of microsieverts per hour to several hundreds and further to 1,000 microsieverts.

During that time, an Asahi Shimbun reporter ended up being exposed to a cumulative total of 69 microsieverts.

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pawatanNov. 12, 2011 - 06:17PM JST

We need people to SEE.

See what? Everybody including the people running the show knows it's not in good shape. Even TEPCO is reporting that.

pawatan, the world wants to know what has been going on. Tonight, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC US nightly news have shown the damage done to Fukushima. We have been told that it will take DECADES for the cleanup.. FYI

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Time will tell. You use smoke and mirrors as much as you like but Mother Nature will eventually reflect the scale of this disaster. It's going to take a long time for people to start feeling safe and confident again about the whole situation. Everytime we have another aftershock, I wonder how the nuclear plant is holding up. Photos of it don't install confidence that it could withstand another big aftershock or quake!

Having said that.....I have nothing but pure, unadulterated respect for the staff who have been there fighting for us all, in the nuclear plant's 'trenches' so to speak from March the 11th. They must have been terrified as they, probably more than anyone, could fully understand the repercussions and tragedy that would have unfolded.

I am hoping and praying for all of us that pride doesn't come before a fall and things, however slowly and painfully, are progressing over at the plant.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

So many in the world are watching, seeking information not trusting the reports from TEPCO or the Japanese Government. Rise up Japan, Rise up World, we must be told the truth.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Thank you TEPCOs workers you have worked tirelessly to stabilise and contain the situation Great job letting the media in to dispel rumour. I trust the operators to do everything they can to resolve the problem in the safest possible way for the short and long term. I hope the media keeps to the facts and reasonable speculation and continues report in the future.

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"During the first week of the accident, I thought several times that we were all going to die.-- Plant chief Masao Yoshida.

Seems like the "hysterical" foreign media got the story right from the start. Same can't be said of the Japanese media, which parroted Tepco's line that "everything is under control."

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@zichi sounds crazy for anyone to get close to that place. Who to trust regarding the safe radius around Fukushima now. As sad as I feel for the prefecture my gut tells me not to believe the PR and to stay out of there.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

I can imagine the pressure salaryman executives at the TV stations or the editors at the big corporate publications must be under to soft pedal this. Gotta be tough to be a reporter that wants to be an investigative journalist not a good salaryman.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Yoshida received a reprimand from top Tepco executives for disobeying a direct order to stop cooling the reactors with corroding seawater. Tepco pencil pushers giving that kind of orders suggest that they were definitely not going to leave the operations to those who actually knew what they were doing. I don't believe for a second that Tepco execs were interested in allocating funds for routine repairs.

There are some references in Masao Yoshida Wikipedia page.

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@Paw: Everybody? Everybody where? You ask anyone outside of Japan, arguably Tohoko and everything is fine and OK. That be the people we want to SEE. i,e the majority of the human inhabitants on THIS planet, earth.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

"We have not studied... we are not in a position to respond.... we have no plans.". Yup! That's TEPCO alright! The only thing they've been consistent with.

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Yoshida san was totally in charge of the Daiichi plant before 3/11 and is probably the one who made all decisions about what happened at the nuke plant, including not updating 600 essential pieces of equipment against earthquakes as requested by NISA.

TEPCO HQ were happy to leave everything up to him, provided profits continued to roll in

While it is true that Yoshida-san was in charge of the plant, it is also true that plant managers rarely have control of the purse strings unless they are also the company president. Yoshida-san probably repeatedly called for these changes to be funded, but the expenditure was never authorized because the Board of Directors felt the likelihood of such an event happening during the lifetime of the plant was remote, at best.

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Mr. Yoshida (chief of the Daiichi plant) and the workers are doing an excellent job. Ganbatte!

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Are you an unemployed Media type???...well, there may be some openings soon in your area...keep the faith!!!...lmao...

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

We need people to SEE.

See what? Everybody including the people running the show knows it's not in good shape. Even TEPCO is reporting that.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

No, let's see if the reporters' hair starts falling out, they get loose bowels and their body weight plummets.

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

Let's see what they report. Let's get it back on the international agenda, even if only for a day. We need people to SEE.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

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