This was awesome. Love the berylium baloney/cesium salami reference.

>> ^goemon:

@SDGundamX Thanks for the additional background check on the video.
So, do you think the Japanese government is doing all it can to inform and protect their citizens?


I see little evidence of some big cover-up going on, as some have suggested. But there are clearly lots of mistakes being made. I would compare it to Katrina in the U.S. because it seems like the same kinds of difficulties are being faced--slow response times, bureaucratic management issues, lack of a clear plan, etc. The current political situation in Japan (Kan is currently a lame duck Prime Minister who refuses to step down) makes getting anything done extremely hard. Complicating matters even more is the fact that Tokyo Electric is a private company and not government-owned and they apparently aren't coordinating that well with the government in formulating a response, which sometimes results in press conferences where Tokyo Electric says one thing only to be completely contradicted by a Japanese government official in a subsequent press conference.

Certainly Fukushima residents have lots to complain about. For example, in the full version of the meeting, the government officials get asked if the government is taking into account internal radiation exposure (from inhaling or ingesting radioactive materials like Cesium) when determining "safe" radiation exposure levels (currently set at 20 mSv/year for Fukushima residents outside the mandatory evacuation zone). It's a great question. The government's response was along the lines that they are still investigating the issue, but that it is complicated by the fact that there's lots of research on "safe" external exposure levels but not nearly as much on internal exposure levels to the the types of materials (Cesium-137, for instance) that were released in the accident. That makes it difficult to determine a "safe" limit. Clearly that's not an answer that's going to put any Fukushima resident's mind at ease.

EDIT:

Just wanted to add that I give props to the government guys who showed up for this meeting. If you watch the 2.5 hour vid, you'll see they calmly put up with all of the interruptions and try their best to honestly answer the questions posed to them. Many of them show sincere sympathy to the people gathered there and express their understanding of the frustration they are facing. They look like they actually came expecting a dialogue rather than an inquisition. I probably would have walked out after the 1st hour but they remain until the very end of the meeting. The vid posted here makes it seem like they abruptly left but in the full version you can see the person who is chairing/MC'ing the meeting thanks them for coming and concludes the meeting. It was after the conclusion of the meeting that the urine-chasers appeared.

I'm still searching the Japanese news sites for the truth about what went down at this meeting, but according to some people on the Japanese YouTube version of this video, this may have been a setup. The reason for all the cameras and shouting was supposedly because the majority of the audience in attendance that day were members of "Green Action" and "Greenpeace" who weren't even residents of the affected area. They basically came to further their own anti-nuclear agenda and brought the urine with them knowing that it wasn't these guys jobs to test it. Again, I'm not sure of the truth of all that. If I find out more I'll post again.

EDIT: Did a bit more research and found children from the Fukushima area have had their urine tested back in June, but only trace amounts of Cesium were found--not at any levels that would affect health (0.41~1.13 becquerels per liter of urine).

EDIT2: Yeah, it was a total setup. The whole meeting was organized by an NGO called Friends of Earth Japan (FoE), who have a strong anti-nuclear agenda (the page I linked to is their public announcement of the meeting, including handouts that detailed their strategy for the meeting). They called out to other groups like No Nukes More Hearts who share similar goals. On the No Nukes More Hearts web page that I linked to they encourage all members of the group, whether they are residents or not, to attend the meeting. Other groups that seem to be involved were the Fukushima Protect Children from Radiation Association, Fukushima Fukuro Club (similar to Greenpeace) and Greenpeace Japan, further stacking the audience.

These groups apparently invited government representatives for "negotiations" about the rights of people living in the stricken areas. Realizing the groups were there to grandstand and not actually discuss anything, the government officials eventually withdrew from the meeting--after nearly 2.5 hours of patiently trying to answer questions! The NGO groups quickly edited down and translated the original video of the meeting to further their own purposes, deleting the two hours of the video in which the government members listen to speeches given by various group leaders and try to answer questions from the audience.

You can see the original unedited video of the meeting here. It looks like the attending government officials were only given copies of the questions they would be asked moments before the meeting started (although in fairness if they had gone to the websites I linked to above they would have known what they were walking in to). Before the meeting even begins, the Fukushima Protect Children from Radiation Association drops a petition demanding all children be evacuated from Fukushima. Throughout the meeting, as the government officials try to patiently answer questions from the audience they are routinely interrupted by others who stand up and give speeches (there's a lot of talk about "protecting the children" which always gets a lot of applause).

So yeah, these guys got ambushed. It was basically a successful troll for these NGO groups.

EDIT 3: In the link to the original (uncut) meeting video, you can go to 1:02:00 to see where this clip starts. Notice this clip has been heavily edited and the government officials actually stuck around for ANOTHER HOUR to answer questions before being accosted by the urine-wielding brigade.

So, how many of you saw the dancing Cesium atom dressed in a bear suit?

Thankfully no one invited Cesium.