This Mainichi Shimbun article, which disputes the authenticity of remarks made by Prime Minister Abe during his final presentation for the Tokyo Olympic bid, where Abe reassured the IOC over the safety of contaminated water leaks from the Fukushima dai-ichi nuclear reactor.
The article was the most shared article on Facebook today, with almost 16,000 shares.
From Mainichi Shimbun:
[Prime Minister Abe] Remarks That Contaminated Water Will Be “Completely Blocked” Shows Difference Of Opinion With TEPCO
There have been doubts that “Abe is not reporting the situation honestly” over the Prime Minister’s remarks on the issue of contaminated water at the Fukushima dai-ichi reactor, where he stated that “[the contaminated water] has been completely blocked” and that “it is under control” during the presentation for the Japanese Olympic bid at the general meeting of the International Olympic Committee held in Buenos Aires on September 7.
At a TEPCO press conference held on September 9, there were a series of questions from the press demanding data to corroborate the Prime Minister’s remarks. After the spokesperson had responded that “we want to stabilise the situation as quickly as possible”, the reply showed a difference in the government’s awareness of the situation, as was made clear by journalists inquiring about the true meaning of Abe’s remarks.
In the harbour (0.3 km square), which is surrounded by a breakwater, a sea-facing impermeable wall has been built in order to prevent the contaminated water from flowing into the sea, and an underwater curtain, known as a “silt fence” has been set-up to prevent a contamination outbreak in the harbour itself. Moreover, improvement works have been instigated to harden the soil in the protective embankment using “waterglass” [sodium silicate], a chemical substance that resembles a sticky liquid.
However, the contaminated water rises above the wall and flows into the harbour. From the water held within the silt fence, radioactive materials such as strontium, which emit beta radiation, were detected as 1100 becquerels per litre, while tritium was detected at 4700 becquerels per litre. TEPCO explained that “The concentration of radioactivity beyond the silt fence is at the most 1/5 of that within the fence”, but about 50% of the sea water within the fenced area, within the harbour, and in the sea itself is mixed each day. Since tritium [probably tritiated water] has a similar chemistry to water, it can pass through the fence. The radiation in the seawater at the harbour entrance and for 3km offshore fell below detectable values; however experts consider that “this is simply due to the fact that it is diluted by a large body of seawater”.
Furthermore, the amount of contaminated water continues to increase because of 400 tons of groundwater per day flowing into the damaged nuclear reactor building. Around 300 tons of highly-concentrated contaminated water has leaked from the above ground storage tanks, and there is the possibility that some of this water has flowed outside the harbour through drainage channels that directly connect to the sea. Problems continued due to insufficient strategies, and even now the risk remains: “It’s difficult to say what is to be controlled, but it is certain that we cannot say that it is technically possible for it to be “completely blocked”. (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
Prime Minister Abe stated that “The amount of exposure from food products and water is, in all regions, 1/100 (1 milisievert per year)”, and said that this posed no risk to health. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the level of exposure to radiation from radioactive selenium, including that from foods for domestic distribution, is at most 0.009 milisieverts. However, Kimura Shinzo, associate professor at Dokkyo Medical University, points out that “Even in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima [which is a landlocked city a considerable distance from the TEPCO plant], 3% of citizens have internal exposure to selenium from eating vegetables and so on that are grown in their own gardens. We simply cannot determine how much of an effect this will have at this stage”. [Tokui Shimpei, Okuyama Tomomi]
Comments from 2ch.net:
名無しさん＠１３周年：
What the hell are TEPCO pretending to be all righteous for, I mean, you lot should be the sacrifices to make this lie into a reality.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
He just stretched the truth for the bid.
Anyway, we got the Olympics, what’s the problem? w
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Abe won’t be around to see the day of the Olympic opening ceremony…
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Hang on, does this actually mean that TEPCO gave false reports to the government?
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Hah, this is because Abe is the guy who once abandoned his administration over stomach pain, right? www
He’s got no problem telling lies.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Well, Abe is a liar just like Noda was, they’re cowards.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Don’t worry about the details.
Just get on with your fucking work, shitty TEPCO.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Yup, all those TEPCO execs should just die.
How far are they going to go selling out their own country? Just die.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Abe Shinzo, Noda Yasuhiko, Hatoyama Yukio.
What did they have in common? They’re all liars.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
TEPCO know about a lot of things, but they’ve been told by politicians and bureaucrats to withhold the truth.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
“Umm, what I mean by contaminated water, simply implies the contaminated water that usually comes out of my arse, and which has now been completely blocked. I said it in this sense.”
By Abe Shitzo.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
The King’s New Clothes, eh?
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Abe is awful.
名無しさん＠１３周年：
The LDP online supporters’ group need to try harder.
“‘Block’ is wasei eigo [Japanese-made English, ie has a different definition to original English word], and expresses intention” etc.
“under control meant something different in Old English” and so on. [Abe uses the English term “control” in katakana].
I want to their acrobatic defense of him.
名無しさん＠１３周年： [in response to above]
Nah, the things is, it’s true that to a certain extent the contaminated water is being blocked.
The biggest problem is that he went and said “kanzen ni blocked”
I wonder how that’s going to be translated.
If it gets translated as “perfectly” or “completely” then he’s in the shit [NB 完全に kanzen ni means “completely”].
名無しさん＠１３周年：
Guess information about the contaminated water has been completely blocked.
