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BBC: “One of the most contaminated places on Earth” — Silence is deafening 10 miles from Fukushima plant — Nuclear power’s lie has been so tragically exposed

http://enenews.com/bbc-one-of-the-most-contaminated-places-on-earth-silence-is-deafening-10-miles-from-fukushima-plant-nuclear-powers-lie-has-been-so-tragically-exposed

Published: December 14th, 2012 at 2:13 am ET
By 

Title: Why Japan’s ‘Fukushima 50′ remain unknown
Source: BBC News
Author: Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
Date: 13 December 2012

Entering the exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant is an unnerving experience.

It is, strictly speaking, also illegal. It is an old cliché to say that radiation is invisible. But without a Geiger counter, it would be easy to forget that this is now one of the most contaminated places on Earth.

The small village of Tatsuno lies in a valley 15km (9.3 miles) from the plant. In the sunlight, the trees on the hillsides are a riot of yellow and gold. But then I realise the fields were once neat rice paddies. Now the grass and weeds tower over me.

On the village main street, the silence is deafening – not a person, car, bike or dog. At one house, washing still flaps in the breeze. And all around me, invisible, in the soil, on the trees, the radiation lingers. […]

Back in the 1960s and 70s, getting rural Japanese communities to accept nuclear power plants was hard.

[…] they were promised that nuclear power was completely safe.

Now that the lie has been so tragically exposed, the feeling of betrayal is huge. […]

See also: Fukushima 3/11 Fallout Figures Released: Over 4,000,000 Bq/m2 in major city — Contamination did NOT come from much talked about Iodine-131 or Cesium-137

From the comments on the enenews article

aigeezer

The “limited hangout” aspect really hit me as I read the BBC story. For example:

1. “For help, I turn to psychiatrist Dr Jun Shigemura at Japan’s national defense university.” (Regular readers know that institution’s history on the topic of Fukushima).

2. The photo shows an immaculate, shiny nuke plant in its glory days.

3. The text floats the old “Fukushima 50 as heroes” meme – great diversion – let’s all debate that while the radiation spreads.

4. The text pounds away with a subliminal message: the beautiful fall foliage (nothing really wrong, trees are still alive), the farmer and his cows (nothing really wrong, they are still alive), and the young worker who has been there since the beginning (nothing really wrong, the workers are still alive).

5. The story invites us to buy in to the official boundary of the “exclusion zone”, eliciting a “tough for them, but at least it isn’t really very big” mindset.

Blah, blah. The BBC (and all media) might be inching towards the truth but they’ve got a very long way to go.


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  • aigeezeraigeezer

    Thinking some more about the “58-year-old Masami Yoshizawa”, the farmer with 400 cows living in the exclusion zone….

    We hear his story often in media reports. In some reports we were told people donate food and supplies to him since local sources are unusable.

    A cow weighs about 1000 pounds (lots of individual variation). It eats about 2% of its body weight daily. Yoshizuwa-san’s 400 cows should need about four tons of food daily.

    Where does the cattle feed come from? What form does it take (local sources are contaminated)? Who pays for it, how and why?

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_do_cows_weigh

    http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/faq7811


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    • aigeezeraigeezer

      Continuing this line of thought… it is very hard to get precise figures online for cattle feed costs in Japan. However, using the price of “cheap hay” from an American source, the extension works out to $90/ton times four tons daily times about 600 days since the crisis began – some $216,000.

      http://beefmagazine.com/cattle-market-weekly/hay-prices-set-record-high-levels


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      • aigeezeraigeezer

        I’m still fussing over the farmer/cattle part of the story – it just strikes me as extremely strange (almost two years into the crisis) that a beef-cattle farmer couldn’t bring himself to slaughter 400 cattle (any more), but would instead keep them alive at great apparent expense, with no obvious prospects and for no obvious reason. Here’s a more believable(?) version from a year ago:

        http://bloge.miwako-kurosaka.com/?eid=992309

        From it: “Scientific groups say the animals represent the best chance for research on the effects of radiation.”

        Limited hangout? Definitely, but what’s it all about?… Who knows?

And this..

 

  • arclightarclight

    Before the meltdowns, Seiko Takahashi never thought of activism. Now the middle-aged mother from Fukushima City is a passionate anti-nuclear campaigner.

    And she admits there is little sympathy for the Fukushima workers.

    fhom the article

    little sympathy??

    ive been reading here on enenews over the last nearly 2 years that we generaly seem to support these workers because they are doing the most important work at risk to more than their psychology, though that is an important part of the situation the 3 melted down coriums and millions of tons of strontium soaked waste water etc may bbe having an impact on the workers long term effect too

    so the japanese press generally supports the great work of these engineers and temporary workers.. even the japanese press has been covering the plight of the health of the missing workers and the need for them to have checkups etc
    this aspect has also been covered here on enenews by some caring and informed bloggers.. most of the anti nuke/tepco websites like exskf and fukushima diary are generally supportive of these brave souls..

    its funny that the bbc qoute someone who says these brave workers do not have sympathy and support from japanese citizens, even the anti nukers

    looks like this is an audous huxley PR catch up piece to make there

    the “How plant was stabilised” , the link on “more on this story” says it all

    stabalised ?? really!!

     

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    • arclightarclight

      anyway it turns out that the bbc trust is annoyed about the disinfo and the bbc is trying to tell the truth whilst leaving copy for the anti nuke yahoo schill group ie “the health physisit that hassles busby, caldicott and likely enenews admin too

      heres a link to why we have the above watered down and heavily slanted (thanks aigeezer well said)

      BBC1 science show ‘downplayed impact’ of Chernobyl nuclear disaster
      “The BBC Trust’s editorial standards committee (ESC) received a complaint on behalf of more than 50 co-signatories that the show was “extremely selective” in the figures it quoted about the impact of radiation released following the Chernobyl disaster and minimised the “more significant and contentious issue” of the secondary effects of health problems such as thyroid cancer.”

      Bang Goes the Theory was ‘extremely selective’ in figures used about deaths resulting from Ukraine accident, trust rules

      Mark Sweney
      guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 December 2012 15.45 GMT

      https://nuclear-news.net/2012/12/12/bbc1-science-show-downplayed-impact-of-chernobyl-nuclear-disaster/

      looks like Chime PR is on the case here with the bbc`s band of merry nuker lawyers.. imo

December 15, 2012 - Posted by | Uncategorized

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