Fukushima watch - items of note for April 19th

http://enenews.com/deutsche-welle-15-japans-nuclear-reactors-currently-shut-down-due-damage

Title: Japanese government criticized for downplaying nuclear disaster
Source: Deutsche Welle
Author: Ulrike Mast-Kirschning / sb
Editor: Shamil Shams
Date: 18.04.2012

[...] Of Japan’s 54 nuclear power plants, 15 of them are currently shut down due to damage. All of the others, aside from one, are being inspected. But to the dismay of the anti-nuclear protesters, it does not appear as though they will all be kept off the grid. The Japanese government wants to get the nuclear power plant in Ooii up and running again. But the governor of Fukui prefecture has to agree first, Takashi Uesugi, a journalist, points out.

He says according to Twitter, around 60,000 people gathered outside the government building in Tokyo out of protest. “But the Japanese media don’t talk about such protests,” he complains. [...]

Read the report here

and.....

Title: Japanese government criticized for downplaying nuclear disaster
Source: Deutsche Welle
Author: Ulrike Mast-Kirschning / sb
Editor: Shamil Shams
Date: 18.04.2012

Reports from Japanese journalists confirm what anti-nuclear activists fear: the situation in Fukushima is much worse than the government is letting on – and the Japanese people are being misled.

[...]

Japanese Journalist Takashi Uesugi

The former TV moderator was invited to a discussion by the Lutheran Church and various NGOs in Berlin to talk about the Japanese government’s handling of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Among other things, he explains how radiation measurements in Fukushima are manipulated.

“The top surface is removed and the area is cleaned with water before the Geiger counters are used,” he says. [...]

According to Uesugi, radiation measurements are manipulated [...]

Tamahashi Uesugi criticizes the strong linkages between politics, the nuclear industry and the media. He says politicians who lose their offices are often offered a job with the energy company Tepco, which operates three nuclear power plants in Japan – one of which is the stricken Daiichi plant in Fukushima. Uesugi believes with all the interdependencies, the system is impenetrable. Furthermore, such are the government’s efforts to play down the nuclear disaster, Uesugi points out, that whoever criticizes it is shunned out of the system. [...]

It is not only the Japanese government, but also international organizations – the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – which are also playing down the effects of radiation exposure. [...]

Read the report here