Conflicting Information Drives Fear in Japan Disaster
Conflicting Information Drives Fear Japan Reactor Disaster
Yomiuri Shimbun/AFP/Getty Images
This aerial shot shows a Japanese Self Defence Force's CH-47 Chinook helicopter holding more than seven tonnes of water each with large buckets from the sea near Natori in Miyagi prefecture.
This aerial shot shows a Japanese Self Defence Force's CH-47 Chinook helicopter holding more than seven tonnes of water each with large buckets from the sea near Natori in Miyagi prefecture. Photographer: Yomiuri Shimbun/AFP/Getty Images
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Robert Kelley, a nuclear engineer, discusses efforts to cool Japan's earthquake-stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. Kelley speaks from Vienna with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano
Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, “Each party should take its own responsibility and ensure coordination to avoid information confusion.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said, “Each party should take its own responsibility and ensure coordination to avoid information confusion.” Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg
Accurate and timely information from Tokyo Electric Power Co. about the accident at its nuclear plant in northern Japan has been hard to come by.
About 60 reporters at a March 16 briefing with utility officials wanted to know whether helicopters would dump seawater on reactors at the Dai-Ichi station to prevent a meltdown. The company was considering the plan, said Masahisa Otsuki, head of the nuclear maintenance division.
At the same time, a live broadcast on a nearby TV screen showed a helicopter taking off with a massive bucket of water hanging from its belly. Reporters barraged the officials.
“We are sorry,” a spokesman said. “We need to check on this.”
Prime Minister Naoto Kan was so frustrated March 15 by a delay in informing him of a fire in reactor No. 1 that he asked utility officials, “What the hell is going on?,” several news agencies reported.
Neighboring China, worried about the spread of radiation from damaged reactors, urged Japan to keep the world fully informed of its efforts and to provide timely and accurate information, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
‘Confusing Situation’
“It’s a confusing situation, and we’re not getting consistent reports out of Japan,” said Gerry Thomas, professor of molecular pathology at London’s Imperial College who has studied the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. “There is an awful lot of misinformation, I think, being put out.”
On March 16, spokesmen for Asia’s biggest utility, also known as Tepco, appeared to indicate that the containment vessel of reactor No. 3 was breached, citing a fire and a surge in radiation as evidence. They later backtracked after no breach was found.
They also told reporters that smoke was coming out of reactor No. 4, then later corrected that to reactor No. 3.
The government, Tepco and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency have different roles to play in disseminating information, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.
“Each party should take its own responsibility and ensure coordination to avoid information confusion,” he said.
‘Absolute Minimum’
Experts on nuclear accidents say they are frustrated by the lack of information. People searching for news on the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl have crashed the International Atomic Energy Association’s website.
“Tepco are doing the absolute minimum public announcements,” said John Price, a Melbourne-based consultant on industrial accidents and former policy staffer at the U.K.’s National Nuclear Corp. Price also called for more details from General Electric on its reactors. Tepco operates and maintains the Dai-Ichi plant complex.
U.S. equities extended their retreat March 16 after U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko told lawmakers that all the water had drained from a spent-fuel pool at Fukushima, and high levels of radiation were being released. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is down 2.4 percent since March 11.
Premature Panic
“Investors are selling on the appearance of a negative situation with the nuclear reactors, and you can’t say it’s unfounded because we don’t know how bad this may get,” said Christopher Sheldon, the Boston-based director of investment strategy at BNY Mellon Wealth Management, which oversees $166 billion globally.
People are envisioning “worst-case” scenarios based on unreliable and often incomplete information, mostly collected from media reports, said Geoff Parks, a nuclear engineer at the University of Cambridge.
Panic over the possibility of uncovered fuel rods leading to new nuclear reactions was premature, he said. The rods would need to reach at least 2,200 degrees Celsius, the melting point for uranium dioxide, the primary fuel in the rods.
The last known temperature in the fuel ponds was less than 100 degrees Celsius, Tepco officials said.
The Associated Press reported at the time that Tepco disagreed with Jaczko’s assessment, even though most of its measuring equipment was broken.
“We haven’t been able to get any of the latest data at any spent fuel pools,” Otsuki said. “We don’t have the latest water levels, temperatures, none of the latest information for any of the four reactors.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Mehul Srivastava in New Delhi at msrivastava6@bloomberg.net; Shigeru Sato in Tokyo at ssato10@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net
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