The South African Civil Society Information Service

Months After Tsunami, Japan Admits Three Nuclear Meltdowns and Doubles Estimate of Radiation Leaked

16 Jun 2011

Almost three months after the earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear disaster in Japan, new radiation "hot spots" may require the evacuation of more areas further from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency recently admitted for the first time that full nuclear meltdowns occurred at three of the plant’s reactors, and more than doubled its estimate for the amount of radiation that leaked from the plant in the first week of the disaster in March. 

"What they failed to mention is that they discharged an equally large amount into the ocean," says Democracy Now guest Robert Alvarez, former senior policy adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Energy. “As [the radiation] goes up the food chain, it accumulates. By the time it reaches people who consume this food, the levels are higher than they originally were when they entered the environment.”

Alvarez also discusses his new report on the vulnerabilities and hazards of stored spent fuel at U.S. reactors in the United States.

The Democracy Now team also speak with Aileen Mioko Smith, executive director of the group Green Action in Tokyo. She says citizens leading their own monitoring efforts, are calling for additional evacuations, especially for young children and pregnant women.

Editor's Note: Meanwhile mothers in Japan are outraged by the deception of the country's nuclear authorities. Find video footage here of an angry mother confronting a Japanese official.

You might also be interested in this report from Russia Today, released about a fortnight ago, about the first mutant rabbit born in Japan just outside the exclusion zone near the Fukushima nuclear plant. The rabbit was born without ears.

At least one country is taking decisive action after Japan's nuclear disaster. Germany has announced that it will close all its nuclear power plants by 2022.

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