Archive for March, 2011

Simple Radiation Safety Tips

A short video clip from ATV explains radiation safety procedures for people who live within 30 kilometers of the Fukushima nuclear plant:

1. Close your doors, windows, and turn off your air conditioning or heating unit. Hang your laundry indoors.
2. If you have to go outside, cover up your skin. Be sure to wear a hat, gloves, and a face mask. When you arrive at an evacuation center, get a radiation check to verify that you do not have contaminants on your clothing or body.

Other networks have been using similar cartoons to explain the situation to viewers. They stress that these measures will not become necessary in other parts of Japan, as the radiation risk only applies to the area near the nuclear plant.

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Media Sensationalism: BBC vs. Huffington Post

Screen captures compare how BBC and the Huffington Post headlined yesterday’s aerial water dumping operation:

[hat tip to japanfun311]

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“Anti-Nuclear Press Puts Japanese Lives at Risk”

Robert Zubrin of the National Review has written an article denouncing how sensational nuclear fear mongering and wild speculation about radiation is distracting people from the very real crisis among quake and tsunami survivors:

Japan currently faces a real emergency. As a result of the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami, thousands of people are dead, and tens of thousands more are missing and may be trapped under rubble, severely injured, and in danger of death by thirst or suffocation. There are over 500,000 people without shelter, with a blizzard on the way, and even the as-yet unscathed could soon face death from epidemics caused by thousands of unburied corpses.

At such a time, nothing could be more scandalous than the current campaign by much of the international press to spread panic over trivial emissions of radiological material from several disabled nuclear power stations.

Read the rest here.

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Japan Turned Down Early American Offers of Help for Fukushima Reactors

The AFP is reporting that the Kan administration is being criticized for turning down early American offers for help with the Fukushima nuclear reactor. Apparently TEPCO and the Japanese government thought they didn’t need any assistance:

The United States made the offer immediately after the disaster caused damage to Fukushima No.1 nuclear plant, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting a senior official of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.

According to the unnamed senior official, US support was based on dismantling the troubled reactors run by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) some 250 kilometres (155 miles) northeast of Tokyo, the mass-circulation daily said.

The government and TEPCO, both having first thought the cooling system could be restored by themselves, rejected the offer as they believed “it was too early to take,” Yomiuri said.

Some ruling party and government officials pointed that the country could have avoided the current crisis if Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government had accepted the offer, it said.

After things got worse, they accepted American help. The U.S. military is providing a variety of assistance, including high power water pumps and aerial reconnaissance drones to help with the situation.

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United States & Great Britain Charter Flights to Evacuate Citizens

The United States Embassy is now chartering airplanes and offering its citizens the chance to leave Japan if they wish:

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo informs U.S. citizens in Japan who wish to depart that the Department of State is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Asia. This assistance will be provided on a reimbursable basis, as required by U.S. law. U.S. citizens who travel on US government-arranged transport will be expected to make their own onward travel plans from the safehaven location. Flights to evacuation points will begin departing Japan on Thursday, March 17. There will be a limited number of seats available on evacuation flights departing from Narita and Haneda airports on March 17. Priority will be given to persons with medical emergencies or severe medical conditions.

Persons interested in departing Japan via USG-chartered transportation should proceed to Narita and Haneda airports or contact the US Department of State and Embassy Japan by sending an e-mail to JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov or by calling 1-202-501-4444. Please provide the following information:

Name
age
place of birth
U.S. passport number, and
any special medical needs.
Immediate family members (spouses and children) who are not U.S. citizens must be documented for entry into the safehaven country and/or U.S., if that is your final destination.

It says on the website that the flights will not be free. The exact cost of a seat is not revealed, as the location of the “safehaven” is not yet certain.

It is not an order, nor is it a suggestion. It is just an offer to American citizens in Japan who want to leave. The United States has not altered its policy regarding radiation risks towards Tokyo.

I suppose this kind of thing was inevitable, considering the panic taking place in the United States as the domestic media does its best to stir up hype about radiation. After France began helping its citizens flee Tokyo, the U.S. State Department must have been flooded with requests from scared Americans who demanded that it show the same level of concern for its citizens.

The British Government is also doing the same thing:

The UK Government is chartering flights from Tokyo to Hong Kong to supplement commercially available options for those wishing to leave Japan.

The first option for leaving Japan should remain commercial routes. Commercial flights continue to operate to and from Japan. British nationals with commercial flight bookings should continue to use these flights and you should continue to make reservation and other arrangements with your airline as usual.

If you wish to leave and cannot secure tickets for a commercial flight, you can register your interest in using our charter option to leave Japan by calling +44 20 7008 6900. We will take your details and contact you as soon as possible to confirm places on the flight and details of departure (we may call at inconvenient times).

The U.K. has recommended that citizens “should consider leaving” the Kanto region and areas North of Tokyo because of the nuclear situation and “potential disruptions to the supply of goods, transport, communications, power and other infrastructure.” However, it continues to stand by its policy that there is “no real human health issue that people should be concerned about” in areas outside of a 30-km radius from the Fukushima plant. Nonetheless, it has decided to adopt the “additional precautionary measure” of following the United States’ lead in recommending the evacuation citizens within 80-km of the plant.

It looks like no major Western government wants to be out-done by other governments when it comes to ensuring the safety of citizens, regardless of whether there is any credible threat to the Tokyo area.

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Rich & Famous People Donate to Earthquake Victims

Here are a few examples of very rich people making large donations to the Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief efforts:

• Tadashi Yanai, founder of Uniqlo, will donate 1 billion yen of his personal fortune. His company will be donating an additional 400 million yen.
• Music producer Atsushi Akimoto and his idol groups (including AKB48), have donated 500 million yen.
• Korean actor Bae Yong-joon (Yon-sama) has donated 1 billion won (about 69 million yen).
• Korean actor Lee Byung-hun has donated 700 million won (about 48 million yen).
• Korean actress Choi Ji-woo and actor Song Seung-hun have each donated 200 million won (about 13 million yen).
• Chinese billionaire Chen Guangbiao has donated rescue supplies and 13 million yen.

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