Japan Reluctant To Disclose Drone Footage of Fukushima Plant

garymortimer writes with word that "footage taken from an RQ-4 Global Hawk drone was passed on to the Japanese government with permission for public release from the US Air Force. US military sources said that the decision to release the footage — or not — was up to the Japanese government." The Japanese government, though, has thus far chosen not to release the high-resolution footage of the tsunami-damaged Fukushima nuclear plant.

Comments

Following the standard instructions

[AbrasiveCat]

Having just attended training in emergency preparedness, we trained not to release details, so the Japanese are just following the standard script. They also said never lie, or you will never be believed in the future. They seem to be following the script. (Actually they are giving more details that I would expect. Now I can’t give any more details of the training. Sorry. )

Did you know

[airfoobar]

Fox News showed a map of the nuclear power plants in Japan. On that map, there was a suspect nuclear plant named "Shibuya Eggman". Turns out that's the name of a nightclub in the Shibuya area of Tokyo.

Now, how is that relevant? Give the fear-mongering media a piece of footage that can be misinterpreted to induce panic, and they won't waste a minute before misrepresenting it to induce panic. Sensationalism is how they get their ratings. The people of Tokyo leaving their jobs in fear and taking to the hills is NOT what Japan's battered economy needs right now. If you ask me, we simply shouldn't read too much into the authorities' actions just yet!

Re:they don't want the footage of godzilla to get

[PopeRatzo]

There's been an enormous astroturf effort by the pro-nuclear brigade.

I'm not so sure it's an "astroturf brigade" so much as it's a general technocratic mindset that because nuclear energy is "high-tech" it's got to be the answer for everything and anyone who questions it is just silly.

Personally, I think at best nuclear energy is a transitional source of energy. If we're still trying to use fission to charge our iPhones in 40 years, it will mean that we've really failed, both socially and technologically. But as long as we don't let "private industry" be in charge of it, I can see it being used to help get us off of fossil fuels.

I notice Germany is generating something like the equivalent of at least 5 nuclear power plants worth of energy with solar panels on housetops. Yes, it was heavily subsidized, but no more than nuclear energy and it's heading quickly toward break even. And from what I've heard those panels are good for decades. I'm sure it pisses off the power companies to no end because it's hard to put a meter on the sun. And I'm pretty sure Germany is one of the cloudier countries in Europe. Now that actually sounds like the beginning of a solution.

But no comic book characters got superpowers from accidents in a solar panel factory, so the majority of Slashdot users will still prefer nukes. And "Duke SolarPanel-em Forever" just doesn't have a ring to it.