This satellite image provided by DigitalGlobe shows the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan on Monday. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe) MANDATORY CREDIT, EDITORIAL USE ONLY, NO SALES
Confusion persists as to the extent of the damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake, which left 10,000 dead or missing, and sped up the earth’s rotation, shortening the day by 1.8 microseconds.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is currently pumping seawater into the reactor in an attempt to keep the nuclear fuel from melting and further complicating the crisis. However, seawater is highly corrosive and will render the reactor destroyed. Once the crisis has passed, the facility will most likely need to be entombed in concrete, in which case the Japanese will be in more familiar territory. The main concern is whether the floor to the containment vessel has cracked. If so, melting fuel may enter the ground–a nightmare scenario the world has never experienced, and may be impossible to contain.
The nuclear crisis is developing so rapidly, its difficult to keep track of all the news. Official statements raise more questions than they answer. While some questions may be answered soon, it could be months before the full extent of the damage is known. In the meantime, countries around the world are anxiously watching the situation unfold. The world needs to know how much radiation, if any, has been leaked into the atmosphere. Official statements suggest the meltdown in Fukushima is more on the scale of Three Mile Island, rather than Chernobyl. However, details are sparse and we are unlikely to get clear answers from Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Official statements from NISA are slow in coming and vague. In fact, quicker and more detailed updates are actually coming form the International Atomic Energy Agency, a non-profit organization posting news on its Facebook page. NISA has been criticized in the past for approving nuclear plants on geological fault lines and alleged conflicts of interest in regulating the nuclear sector. And the operator of the Fukushima plant, TEPCO, has been involved in a series of cover-ups, most notably in 2002 when the chairman and four other executives resigned after being accused of falsifying safety records.
The lack of transparency in the nuclear sector has roots in Japan’s social hierarchy. Japan was the world’s last feudal society, and it hasn’t yet completely shaken its feudal past. Bureaucrats still see themselves as samurai and the people as serfs. In Japan’s rigid hierarchy, deference to superiors is inculcated from an early age, even when one’s superiors are clearly in the wrong. There is no such thing as freedom of information, and the idea that the people have a right to question their authorities is almost immoral. The government believes its role is to pacify the people, rather than inform them (which could account for official statements purporting the nuclear meltdown is under control, despite the way it looks to outside observers). The Japanese language, with its passive grammatical structure and optional pronouns, facilitates intentionally vague communication. Some linguists consider this to be a virtue of Japanese, and would say it’s ethnocentric to expect Japanese bureaucrats to conform to Western norms of communication in international forums. However, in this disaster where the world is looking to Japan for information, this is one time when authorities can’t be intentionally vague and hide information.
While it appears the authorities may have the situation under control, it will likely be days before the reactor is contained. So it’s too early to say whether a catastrophe has been averted.
