Japanese PM Tries To Put Lid On Bad PR Over Nuclear Crisis

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts come amid new revelations that the Japanese government and TEPCO ignored warnings to protect their bottom-line.

Sarah Lazare
By Sarah Lazare

Should the recent words of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe be seen as a renewed effort to take control of the Fukushima nuclear crisis, or a cynical ploy to insulate the nuclear industry and government from increasingly bad publicity amid the country's bid to host the upcoming Olympic games? Abe stepped up his public relations blitz Thursday,

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Typhoon Forces Dumping Of Radioactive Water At Fukushima

TEPCO officials indicate measures were taken to avoid worse disaster, but it remains unclear how much water was pumped into ocean

Common Dreams
By Common Dreams

As Typhoon Man-Yi crashed into Japan on Monday with heavy winds and rain, the owners of the Fukushima nuclear power plant were forced to hurriedly pump rising levels of stored radioactive water into the ocean in order to fend off the threat of a further disaster. Ahead of the storm's landfall, fears were that high winds and rising waters could

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A Primer On The Dangers Of Nuclear Power

Most everything is at least slightly radioactive, and there’s no truly safe level of radiation. But some radiation is more dangerous than others.

John Nordin
By John Nordin
Japan Radiation Risk

Assessing the dangers of nuclear power requires coming to some understanding of radiation, how much of it we get exposed to and how dangerous that exposure is. Unfortunately, this is a topic that not only brings out the irrational in some people but also is genuinely difficult to untangle. The first problem is being clear about what we are

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Fukushima: What Sort Of Crisis? (Part 2)

Media reports of radioactive leaks into the Pacific Ocean are conflating — and exaggerating — two separate incidents, while ignoring legitimate safety issues.

John Nordin
By John Nordin

(Don't miss part 1.) Two evolving stories are the current focus of news from the ongoing Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in Japan. The first story is about leaks, the second about leaks into the ocean. Both are full of uncertainties and ambiguities that the media is mostly missing.   Two leaks There are two different stories of leaking

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Japan’s Plan For Radioactive Waste Water: Into The Ocean

“I’m afraid that it is unavoidable to dump or release the water into the sea,” said Shunichi Tanaka, head of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority.

Andrea Germanos
By Andrea Germanos
This aerial view shows the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Spreading radiation and suspected new leaks are plaguing the ongoing disaster site of the Fukushima nuclear power plant on Monday, while the head of Japan's nuclear regulatory body warned that there may be no other option than to dump radioactive waste water into the Pacific. A picture taken by Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority on August 23,

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Fukushima: What Sort Of Crisis?

The media plays on nuclear contamination fears, drowning out far more lethal consequences of Japan’s tsunami while exaggerating the dangers of nuclear power.

John Nordin
By John Nordin
This aerial view shows the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Monday, March 11, 2013. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor complex, severely damaged by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, was back in the news this week with stories of an apparently massive and uncontrollable leak of dangerously contaminated water into the ocean. Or maybe not, since World Nuclear News, an industry source, claimed four days later that the leak was

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