What really was the biggest mistake that the Government of Japan made about the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster?
The biggest mistake that the Government of Japan made when it came to handling the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster was giving the task of managing the disaster to Goshi Hosono, instead of handing the job to someone with the knowledge and understanding of all issues Nuclear. They have many individuals that could have been made ” special” minister, but that did not happen and all the subsequent issues that have been created from not addressing the WHO TO HANDLE the DISASTER can all be attributed to that initial bad choice.
There has been nothing but a series of incidents that can all be linked back to Goshi Hosono and his inability to understand and manage the scope of the disaster.
It started with this:
IMMEDIATELY after the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th that crippled reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, all but one of the devices to measure radioactive matter in the area were knocked out. So the authorities in Tokyo sent up a vehicle stuffed with gauges to assess how dangerous the leakage was.
Bewilderingly, says Goshi Hosono, a politician recently appointed to oversee Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO, the utility that runs the plant), the vehicle got stuck in traffic. It then ran out of petrol at a time when the tsunami had led to a nationwide shortage of fuel. Because of this, the government abandoned the mission. Later, the government declared the Fukushima incident to be on the same level of seriousness as the accident at Chernobyl 25 years ago. Yet it had taken what Mr Hosono says was seven to ten days before the government could get reliable data on the amount of radioactive matter pouring out. During that period it became clear that a partial meltdown had taken place in at least one of the six reactors.
http://www.economist.com/node/18621529
And, it has not gotten any better. The blunders outnumber the successes, which I am hard-pressed to find. Each incident that bloomed and became worse was due to the man who was supposed to be managing the disaster, actually having no understanding of all aspects that it involved.
The blunders or mistakes involve the tainted food, while this man was minister of food as well as minister of nuclear disaster. He ignored the offers of assistance by other nations, waiting for the disaster to continue to worsen. Taking the word of TEPCO over all the ” non-biased” nuclear experts that were offering their assistance and assessment of the situation.
His lack of understanding led to the ” disastrous evacuation” where the already traumatized victims were further traumatized by having to leave pets behind. And, their misery has no impact on him. How many animals died because of his EGO? Anyone else with any decency would have admitted that he could not manage the task because he did not have the KNOWLEDGE or UNDERSTANDING to handle it. NOT our man, GOSHI, he probably felt that it would be a just one great photo-op, and how “cool” he would look to the chicks when he put on a radiation suit.
He wants to have 43 prefectures deliberately contaminate their areas because he did not have the fore-thought to think about nor manage the problem of the debris. However, he did have time to scoot over to Austria to attend a conference.
There is no doubt in my mind that the legend of “Goshi Hosono” will continue to grow. It will be the blue-print of HOW NOT TO MANAGE a NUCLEAR CRISIS when a review of LESSONS LEARNED is held.
