This is the United States Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s latest press release No. 11-409, 3-15-11. This is every last word of it, all of it.

NRC ANALYSIS CONTINUES TO SUPPORT JAPAN’S PROTECTIVE ACTIONS
NRC analysts overnight continued their review of radiation data related to the damaged Japanese nuclear reactors. The analysts continue to conclude the steps recommend by Japanese authorities parallel those the United States would suggest in a similar situation.
The Japanese authorities Monday recommended evacuation to 20 kilometers around the affected reactors and said that persons out to 30 kilometers should shelter in place.
Those recommendations parallel the protective actions the United States would suggest should dose limits reach 1 rem to the entire body and 5 rem for the thyroid, an organ particularly susceptible to radiation uptake. The currently reported Japanese radiation measurements are well below these guidelines.
A rem is a measure of radiation dose. The average American is exposed to approximately 620 millirems, or 0.62 rem, of radiation each year from natural and manmade sources.

Their writer has brevity down to an art. The central message here is a combination of “they are doing what we would do” and a sort of background, implied “Go team” for the Japanese. Some of the writers who have commented on this blog in the last few days feel that their government here in the United States is letting them down when it comes to information – for instance, the probabilities of radiation reaching the West Coast and other parts of the United States.

This kind of terse press release does nothing to assuage the public’s fears and, in fact, gives the impression of studied indifference.

This series of incidents in Japan is one of the great historical sagas of this 21st Century. History is being made virtually by the hour.

The United States is ill served by this limited and useless public information during such a crisis.

James Pilant