Radiation Lies
What a surprise! It seems both the Japanese government and the United States Navy lied to the sailors aboard the USS Ronald Reagan about how much radiation they were exposed to. Please be aware the Fukushima crisis continues on day after day. The reactors continue to leak radiation. Every day workers have to go in and try to keep the situation under control. It’s a slow-speed crisis demonstrating the power of a nuclear disaster as opposed to other man made destruction.
What kind of ethical judgement was at play here? Surely a high radiation level is going to have long term effects? And in real life, conspiracies of silence only work for so long.
This is a failure here to discern right from wrong. This is a failure to do everything possible to safeguard the lives of Americans on a rescue mission. And most of all, this is a failure of the Japanese government whose continued lies and incompetence have created an ongoing crisis for which they may be no cure in our lifetimes or even the lifetimes of our children.
James Pilant
US sailors exposed to Fukushima radiation levels beyond Japan’s estimates | Al Jazeera America
Crew members of the USS Ronald Reagan’s March 2011 Fukushima relief mission encountered radiation levels that far exceeded the Japanese government’s estimates, according to a report in the Asia-Pacific Journal.
The revelations contained in the report could have a bearing on the lawsuit against Tokyo Electric Power Company by more than 70 U.S. service members who say they suffer from long-term health effects from their participation in the U.S. navy’s response to the nuclear disaster.
Kyle Cleveland, a Temple University professor based in Japan, obtained documents showing military officials aboard the carrier detected radiation levels that were 30 times greater than normal and significantly greater than what the Japanese government told them to expect.
Navy officials have maintained that the radiation levels service members were exposed to during Operation Tomodachi were not enough to cause health effects.
via US sailors exposed to Fukushima radiation levels beyond Japan’s estimates | Al Jazeera America.
From around the web.
From the web site, Japan Safety.
March 11th, 2011 would have begun like any other day for the crew of the USS Ronald Reagan, except this particular day would go down in history, as the world learned of the 9.o earthquake and devastating tsunami that had struck Japan. The ship, which was already relatively close to Japan, would be changing course for the coastline of Honshu to assist in humanitarian efforts needed for the tens of thousands of people now displaced by this enormous disaster. The rest of the 7th fleet would join in the mission as well. In total, 70,000 members of the US military would participate in some way during the course and became known as “Operation Tomodachi”. Tomodachi happens to mean ‘friend’.
Over 1000 miles away, Alaskan ringed seals stretched lazily on ice floes, perhaps aware of a disturbance in the earths’ geomagnetic field, perhaps not. Either way, not much changes from a seals point of view, one day is not much different from another. You wake up, swim around, find food, and go back to sleep. The only time seals deviate from this schedule is if it is mating season, a tsunami is coming, you are being chased by a polar bear or killer whale, or if you have cubs to look after.
In Japan, as the 7th fleet anchored off Honshu, helicopter flights were readied, supplies prepared, gear was checked, and orders received from Naval Command stateside, who were taking their direction from the Japanese government, and later the NRC. What may have first seemed like an in-and-out mission, was immediately and drastically expanded. The widespread damage was much worse than first feared. It would be weeks, even months, that Japan would need help. The sailors prepared themselves accordingly. But it didn’t take long to see this mission may not go as planned. Within the first days, things started going really, really wrong on the ship. You could say, they went rather critical. As well as a few nearby nuke plants on the coast of Honshu, and especially at Fukushima Daiichi.
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