In the moments after the massive March earthquake shook Japan to its core in 2011, news broke that a nuclear reactor at Fukushima may have been damaged by the rattle and subsequent tsunami which followed--something that the government at the time downplayed both in Japan and in the United States.
How would the Nuclear Regulatory Commission help Japan? They said they were there for the nation, but as the going got tougher and the radiation got rougher, there was debate and disagreement on what to tell Japan.
The NRC emails provide a much more candid glimpse of how the government really worried about what was going on after the tsunami decimated life and nuclear reactors..
The Washington POST reports in its story:
While assuring Americans publicly that there was no danger, the NRC did not disclose one worst-case scenario, which did not rule out the possibility of radiation exceeding safe levels for thyroid doses in Alaska, the e-mails show. “Because things were uncertain, we considered it but the data that was available . . . did not support that very pessimistic scenario so no, it was not discussed publicly at that point,” NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said. In the end, Alaska was not affected.
In the end, Alaska was not affected?
Some disagree.
And even more, the amount of wreckage and garbage coming from a part of a nation washed to sea will be arriving on the West Coast soon--after making a stop first in Hawaii.
The emails and responses also offer a snapshot of the future.... we can either propel ourselves as humanity to learn to deal with catastrophe that is sure to occur or succumb to the pressures of petty politics and simply mislead the public about what really is going on... right in front of their faces.