Regarding the scale of the ecological disaster, my impression is that is so big that no one has a handle on it. No one knows how much radioactive material escaped, where it ended up, or how widespread it is. It is much worse than they originally thought.
Last week they inserted a camera into one of the reactor cores for the first time. A lot of the material they expected to find is not there. There is nowhere near as much water as they expected. It is leaking out. Much of the reactor core is probably spread out as fine dust in the ocean and surrounding land, from the hydrogen explosion and subsequent chaos. No one really knows. They are getting dangerously high readings from places far from the plants. They have millions of tons of contaminated earth and debris, and nowhere to put it. The Japanese government has dragged many professors, engineers and experts out of retirement to work on the problem. They sent soil samples taken many kilometers away from the plant to Mizuno and others in Hokkaido. The soil was so radioactive, Mizuno was scared to deal with it, and did not know where to store it. The Japanese government is very anxious to cover up this mess with their proverbial blue plastic tarps -- physical, political and mental. A few weeks ago someone in Japan downloaded the U.S. NRL report on the accident. They printed hundreds of copies which were used in the ongoing Parliamentary hearings, and shown prominently on TV, because -- as one MP put it, "we can't this kind of information out of our own government, so we are forced to rely on the Americans." The other day, at the 1-year anniversary memorial service the Emperor gave a short speech. I have never heard the Emperor say anything controversial. This did not seem controversial either, but he mentioned that the nuclear accident is still happening and many people have lost their houses and farms perhaps for decades. National NHK TV and other major news organizations censored that part of the speech. They cut it right out. Even the Emperor is not allowed to say the obvious! NHK and the mass media also censored the famous videos of the reactors exploding. I watched NHK extensively during the accident, and recorded it. They never showed that video; only photos of the buildings days later. Takahashi told me that everyone in Japan saw the videos on YouTube but not on TV. The rest of Japan's reactors are shut down and undergoing extensive examinations and stress testing. Yesterday they reported that one of them has much more neutron embrittlement in the steel reactor vessel than expected, or than predicted by theory. Some government official said, "don't worry, it is just a math error." (keisan-machigai). Keep moving folks. Nothing to see here. This is why the Japanese public does not trust the government or the power companies. I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them. - Jed
