Fukushima: Propaganda and Self-Interest
Due to the dramatic events in Japan, I had to reactivate my blog. While the Japanese people are suffering from unbelievable consequences of an earth quake that was followed by a tsunami that was followed by several nuclear "incidents", it is very hard to obtain accurate information about the severity of these nuclear "incidents".
Everybody acts in their own self interest
Governments, naturally, do not want to spread panic among their citizens. News media, naturally, want to attract as much readers as possible, corporations want to retain their reputation and market position, anti-nuclear groups want to fight against the proliferation of nuclear power and - last, but not least - the nuclear industry also acts in their own interest.
While looking for information sources, I came across the website world-nuclear-news.org, a news service backed by the nuclear industry. Whatever you might think of nuclear energy, there is one thing you can learn from this news service: How to do public relations properly and how to describe very dramatic events as calm and undramatic as possible.
Propaganda?
Let's take a quick look at two news articles. The first one is called: Problems for units 3 and 4 and starts with this quote:
The cause of the fires remains unknown due to radiation in the area, and they could in fact be one fire that died down before reigniting.
Plain English: This basically says that there is so much radiation in the area that no one could go there to check what caused the fires. In addition, one fire that first died by itself and then "reignited" sounds much more innocent than two uncontrolled fires.
Efforts are underway to refill the pool, including an abandoned attempt to douse the building with water from an army helicopter, hoping to get some to go through the damaged building.
Plain English: This part of the text says nothing about the status of those "efforts": Will they be successful? What exactly are these efforts? When I know what to do, I say "I am taking the car and drive to Hamburg". But when I say "I am underway to start an effort to go to Hamburg", this could mean that I haven't even made one single step towards my destination. In addition, it suggests that no one actually knows what to do.
Plus, "pool" sounds so much nicer and so much more innocent than "nuclear fuel rod container". "Abandoned attempt" and "army helicopter" sound at first sight as if everything was under control, but reading it a second time it shows desperation. What can you do more if you can't even use an army helicopter? "Hoping to get some to go through the damaged building" only underlines this desperation further.
The "pond" is "warming"
Next news story is called: Possible damage at Fukushima Daiichi 2
Radiation decreasing, fuel ponds warming
Plain English: Positive news! "The fuel ponds are warming": Doesn't this sound nice, a warm summer day at the pond? Nice description for an overheating and possible explosion of gases and fires that might come afterwards. Not to forget about the radiation.
Loud noises were heard at Fukushima Daiichi 2 this morning and a major component beneath the reactor may be damaged.
Plain English: There was an explosion and the reactor might have been damaged. Just imagine you sit in the plane, and the captain says that "I heard a loud noise and I think that a major component of the plane may be damaged". Sounds not nice...
Concern is growing over the status of fuel cooling ponds at units 4, 5 and 6.
Plain English: The cooling does not work, it might heat up so much that it starts burning eventually. When your health "status" is deteriorating, you are ill.
The pressure in the pool was seen to decrease from three atmospheres to one atmosphere after the noise, suggesting possible damage.
Plain English: Sounds good when pressure is decreasing, but this is actually a bad sign.
In line with the theory that non-condensed gases in the torus will be released fairly promptly and not replenished at the same rate, it is possible that the radiation release - at least via this route - will diminish and stabilise.
Plain English: Nice to hear that radiation will diminish, but "at least via this route" suggests that there might be other, more dangerous, sources of radiation that in the end might actually lead to an increase of total radiation.
Similar to the need to cool fuel in the reactor core, used fuel assemblies in cooling ponds require a covering of water to remove decay heat. The main differences being the amount of decay heat to be removed decreases exponentially with time and that fuel ponds are much less of an enclosed space than a reactor vessel. At the same time, ponds may contain several years of fuel.
Plain English: Here again, it sounds like a good development at first "much less on an enclosed space than a reactor vessel", but if this actually starts to burn it is even worse because the radiation cannot be contained as good as in a reactor.
Road ahead and ways to help
There is not much to say. I am actually really thankful to be far, far away from the events in Japan and I am really amazed how well the Japanese people seem to handle the situation. If you want to donate money, read this blog entry and donate your money wisely.
I can only hope that the situation at Fukushima quickly improves, and that Japan finally in all of these adverse circumstances gets a little bit of luck.