(Image source: CBSNews)

BY CAMILLE MAESTRACCI
 
It’s been six month since a terrible earthquake, tsunami and nuclear catastrophe rocked Japan.
 
Officials gathered in Tokyo while a crowd in Japan's Fukushima Prefecture commemorated the 20,000 victims. Hundreds of lights were released in the sky, only 24 miles from the radiation-leaking Fukushima nuclear plant.
 
The site is still very unsafe. According to Science Daily the level of radiation leaked by the nuclear plant is so high that even the proportion of radioactive aerosols found near Washington is ten times greater than normal.
 
“...more radioxenon was released from the Fukushima facilities than in the 1979 meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania and in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine… [T]he reason for the large release in Fukushima, when compared to the others, is that there were three nuclear reactors at the Japan facilities rather than just one.”
 
In Fukushima, a group of experts is currently holding the first international conference about Radiation and Health risks. But French website Rue89 is very critical about it and incriminates one scientist in particular.
 
“Thanks to the media publicity, Dr. [Shinichi] Yamashita is considered a reliable scientist, reassuring to people who say they feel better when they hear him. He does not hesitate to proclaim: ‘The more you smile, the less radiations you will get [...]. If you do not smile, the rays will affect you. This has been proven by animal experiments’.”
 
Six months after the accident, Al Jazeera reports -- many remain concerned about the lack of public information from Japanese officials.
 
“The government seems to be in disarray and seems to be unable to make decisions and the public trust of the government and institutions has been on a massive decline and many people are wondering whether the government has been open enough in terms of the overall radiation threats.”
 
The Japan Times tries to be reassuring and focuses on what is being done to secure the area.
 
According to the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the reactors at Fukushima power plant are now stable. But international observers note that radioactive materials are still a serious threat.
 
 

Sci/Health News: Fukushima: Six Months Later

Japan Quake: Six Months Later

September 13, 2011
(2:12)
Six months after the tragedy in Japan, the media reflect and look forward. Concerns over radiation are on the rise.
   
TRANSCRIPT

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