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Retreat was never an option: ex-Fukushima plant chief

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© 2012 AFP

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if the crisis video footage is shown in full, it will be easy to know whether retreat was an option or the main objective...At least we now know the former prime minister struggled a bit to ensure nuke plant workers did not abscond from duty....

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I'm sure if they had have fled then Japan would be doomed. They should release ALL the footage unedited as Naoto Kan openly suggested.

Yesterday evening there was a shallow "low scale 5" earthquake measured right next to Fukushima plant yet the JMA have released data claiming that the immediate surrounding areas were shindo scale 1-2 earthquakes including the location of the Daichi power plant. They continuously lie to the people.

Check the link below.

http://fukushima-diary.com/2012/08/earthquake-scale-5-only-in-fukushima-but-not-listed-in-usgs-series/?fwcc=1&fwcl=1&fwl=1#.UCgOAM7XxGE.facebook

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Well he may not have suggested retreat, but that does mean the higher-ups didn't. Where were they?

And retreat would have been an option had they been using thorium. And considering that there was also a tsunami to contend with, it sure would have been nice to have that option of retreat here in tsunami central. So why aren't they using thorium? Oh yeah, its not as profitable! The TEPCO execs should get a chance to ponder the profitability of their necks in a noose!

-7 ( +0 / -7 )

'the connection to the power plant is not known'.....an earthquake is an earthquake. If you go to the JMA site and click through the past 24 hours' quakes you'll see several, some closer and some further away. This Fukushima Diary site does a lot of inferring without any proof.

It was not 'right next' to the plant.....102 km by road, 50 or 60 as the crow flies. You can put it into Google maps yourself and see it was not 'right next to' the plant.

Check things out before you believe them...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

As a private corporation, THEY HAVE NO AUTHORITY to put their employers at risk.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

HimajinAug. 13, 2012 - 09:15AM JST

It was not 'right next' to the plant.....102 km by road, 50 or 60 as the crow flies. You can put it into Google maps yourself and see it was not 'right next to' the plant.

I've felt a M5.4 near surface 80km from epicenter in a place with no seismic protections, and it's basically some rumbling. Things move a bit, but not much. After all, 5.0 is 10000 times less power than 9.0. So yea, the workers would not even stop and probably think the vibration was caused by heavy equipment in the area.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

I have a question for him: Now that he has lived through the 'hell' of a nuclear meltdown does be still support nuclear power?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Last week, plant operator TEPCO released video footage that showed Yoshida shouting “We have a big problem, a big problem!” to his bosses at the utility’s Tokyo headquarters as a reactor exploded.

How many times will the mass media repeat this entirely false statement? No reactors exploded, in fact, the only explosions were ABOVE the reactor in a tin roofed section. If the reactor itself exploded, you would be seeing Chernobyl (where a single reactor did "explode") type signatures rather than 1/25th (per reactor) that number.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

basroil: It's just a mistranslation. By reactor they mean a plant.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

“I did not suggest to headquarters that (we should) retreat and never thought about it.”

If Masao Yoshida says otherwise, it would mean derelict of duties and that would mean no pension and health coverage and be out of job at 57 years old.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The buildings roof and walls were blown apart, the actual containment vessel was at the centre of said explosion, not an ideal situation! The reactor itself had cracked and begun a downward melt, Hydgren was up and out! The workers on site were doing all they could to avoid a huge problem, they had little training and no manual...it came as close as it could to anilahating Japan. And today its still critical, untrained, under protected workers doing their best. Despite the best efforts of TEPCO to claim 1 it's not their fault 2 they have no responsibility.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

described the scene as “hell.” Work in a hospital and you will know what "hell" means everyday. At least Yoshida has still a house family to go back to. How about the cities and families lost around the Fukushima NPP?

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Thomas AndersonAug. 13, 2012 - 11:49AM JST

It's just a mistranslation. By reactor they mean a plant.

If they did it once it would be a mistake, but the last dozen articles by AFP all do the same thing, so it is a systemic issue with bias. Likely the initial retreat argument was also a similar misunderstanding that the media ran with, and never bothered to correct.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

The Last Samurai?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I've felt a M5.4 near surface 80km from epicenter in a place with no seismic protections, and it's basically some rumbling.

What the Fukushima Diary site is trying to say is that this was not an earthquake, but something happening in the plant, as it wasn't reported by the USGS.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

HimajinAug. 13, 2012 - 06:27PM JST

What the Fukushima Diary site is trying to say is that this was not an earthquake, but something happening in the plant, as it wasn't reported by the USGS.

That website is a bunch of conspiracy theorists who don't even bother checking their sources. Outside the USA and a few stations elsewhere, USGS only records quakes measuring over M4.5. According to the information IN THE DIARY WEBSITE ITSELF, the quake was only M4.2. As it was shallow, shaking was more prevalent, but USGS doesn't care about shake, only energy.

From the USGS site:

Earthquakes occurring outside the US and smaller than about magnitude 4.5 can be difficult for the USGS to locate if there are not enough data. The USGS continues to receive data from observatories throughout the world for several months after the events occur. Using those data, we add new events and revise existing events in later publications. For a description of these later publications and the data available, see Scientific Data.

So there, no coverups, just the fact the quake was smaller than anyone cares about.

In comparison, Chernobyl explosion was only M3.8, and the largest conventional bombs are under M4, so for M4.2 you would need a small nuclear explosion, which would have been visible from miles away yet nobody reported.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Complete lies!

Tepco gave up and said it is now the governments problem, that is why the SDF had to come in with helicopters and dump water.

Stop trying to turn this into a "ganbare" situtation!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

gogogoAug. 14, 2012 - 04:25PM JST

Tepco gave up and said it is now the governments problem, that is why the SDF had to come in with helicopters and dump water.

That is the most ridiculous statement I've heard in a while. TEPCO doesn't own that type of equipment, and is therefore unable to use what it doesn't have. Ground based solutions didn't work so air drops were REQUESTED by the company. That comment would be like saying that a the company that owns a building that is on fire gave up because they asked firefighters to take over spraying water.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

I think the helicopter was Kan's idea.

I don't think that TEPCO, as a private corporation, can order people to even go near such a highly irradiated area.

Basically everything happened after the nuclear meltdown was the job of the government.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

That website is a bunch of conspiracy theorists who don't even bother checking their sources.

A lot of fear-mongering.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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