The investigations into what happened during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which occurred in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, continue to be a controversial issue in Japan, with many believing that key facts remain hidden.
Now an article from the Japanese national public broadcaster NHK, published on November 17, claims the existence of undisclosed reports, created at the time of the nuclear disaster, that show the radioactivity levels to be much higher than Tokyo Electric Power Company who own the power plants involved, have previously made public. This lends weight to the argument that the smoke seen emanating from the reactors of the Daiichi [no.1] plant on March 15 and March 16 were not the consequence of a water-based hydrogen explosion, with experts saying that more detailed investigation is now necessary.
The article is translated in full below, along with a selection of netizen reactions to the news.
From NHK.com:
Existence of undisclosed data; radiation levels rose sharply
When investigating the levels of nuclear radiation emitted during the nuclear incident of March 2011, it was revealed that important data exists regarding the amount of radiation around the nuclear power plant that was not made public. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) say that ‘investigations are underway’ as to why it was not disclosed. Within the report, there is data that shows a temporary sharp rise in radiation levels on the afternoon of March 15 2011, five days after the earthquake, and an expert suggests that ‘this shows that there is a possibility that something happened at the power plant, and it needs to be investigated in detail’.
In May 2012, TEPCO published the latest analytical results regarding the radiation levels emitted in the incident at Fukushima no.1 power plant, which accepts that there were large amounts of radiation released from reactor no. 2 from March 15, and from reactor no. 3 from the following day, March 16, but the specific emission pathways and so on were not made clear.
In trying to discover what lay behind the mystery of the missing data, when NHK investigated anew the amounts of radiation recorded in the area around the nuclear power plant, there was something odd in the values given for plant no. 2, which is twelve kilometres south of plant no. 1. When this was questioned, the existence of undisclosed data was discovered.
According to TEPCO, the undisclosed data is data from March 15 2011 through April 3 2011. Looking at the data from March 16 that has been confirmed by NHK and which has been explained by TEPCO, at around 9:40am, the radiation levels suddenly jumped from where they had stayed at around 20 microsieverts an hour before, to 80 microsieverts. After ten minutes this had risen further to 87.7 microsieverts.
At 8.30am, just over one hour before the radiation levels rose sharply, it was confirmed that white smoke was spewing from the housing of reactor no.3 in large quantities, and although it was suspected that this was related to an emission of nuclear radiation, the exact details of what happened there are still unknown.
Kado Shinichiro, associate professor at the University of Tokyo, who is investigating the levels of radiation in the area surrounding the plant following the incident, stated with regards to this: ‘From the standpoint of someone who went to analyse the situation, it is a great pity that despite one year and eight months having passed since the incident, there is still undisclosed data. Data that significantly changes the values of radiation levels, like the data that has been revealed this time, demonstrates the possibility that something did happen at the Fukushima no.1 plant, and when you include the relevance of the white smoke that came from reactor no.3, further investigation is necessary.’
TEPCO say that ‘the reason why the data was not disclosed is under investigation. In the process of confirming this, we intend to review whether or not it will be made public’.
Comments from Twitter:
しみずしげとし:
On March 15 2011 it exploded and a mushroom cloud came out of it, so something definitely happened. I saw that and ran away. I was frightened, so I really did run away.
中村未来歩:
Why are we still leaving the investigation to TEPCO? ‘We don’t know why it wasn’t published’ just isn’t good enough. What the hell kind of system do they have at that company?
この冬、梨の木を植えるはず:
Isn’t it strange that although NHK noticed this, TEPCO didn’t notice it?
ささきあきら:
Seeing as TEPCO are always doing this kind of thing, I think that reactivation of the plant is impossible…
猫御前 :
Why is this only coming out now? This has terrified me, and I was one of the ones who laughed at ‘the white smoke debacle’.
netbooker:
What on earth must the Nuclear Regulation Authority be doing to be outdone by NHK?
小田切裕介:
Why did they purposely withold information? Something’s not quite right about that. Now, more than one and a half years after the incident, it’s suspicious that they were just going to publish it secretly.
なっこ:
Looks like there are still things they’re hiding from us.
pirano:
I couldn’t believe that this was news from yesterday/today, and actually had to check the date on the article.
ﾊﾞﾊﾑﾙｹﾞﾝﾀﾞ†(勇者ﾚﾍﾞﾙ2):
Why only now..(；´Д`) TEPCO disgusts me.
Comments from 2ch.net:
名無しさん＠１３周年:
This is murder. Arrest the fuckers who have hidden their attempted murders.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Well, it’s a bit late to kick up a fuss now…
名無しさん＠１３周年：
What came from the reactor that day wasn’t white smoke but black smoke, plus you could also see a red blaze, about 300m above ground. The smoke blew upwards. It evidently can’t be explained by a hydrogen explosion, wasn’t it a nuclear explosion? The no.3 reactor was also using MOX fuel too
名無しさん＠１３周年：
A message to the flesh of Kanto dwellers:
In twenty years’ time, half of the residents will get cancer.
By the way, at the moment one in three people in Japan will get cancer, regardless of exposure to nuclear radiation. In twenty years’ time, it is anticipated that one in two people will get cancer.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Who is the m-u-r-d-e-r-e-r? I will never forgive them.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
If the effects are seen after several years, they’ll probably have some way of denying the causality anyway.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
THEFTCO [netizen pun on TEPCO] and the ministry of economy were never going to let this data out themselves.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Even giga counters in Tokyo registered it
名無しさん＠１３周年：
I guess it’s more of a problem that NHK released this information during the time of a general election.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Those responsible must face criminal prosecution, not a civil trial.
