Nuclear Melt-Down? The Government to the Rescue

ANALYSIS, KUDANKULAM ANTI-NUCLEAR SATYAGRAHA, INDIA, 14 Mar 2011

Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers – Lew Rockwell

March 14, 2011

The nuclear power plant failures and explosions near Fukushima, Japan are an excellent case example of the failure of government. Here, the Japanese government has been horribly derelict before, during and after this incident. This freak occurrence would be a tragedy of comical proportions if only it weren’t so grotesque and a real-life horror show. It has been a brutal tragedy of errors that makes me wonder why anyone would trust or believe anything the government says.

I am not talking about just the Japanese government here. I am talking about all governments. All governments lie all the time. It is the nature of government to do so.

As of the writing of this article, the situation at the nuclear power plants keeps getting worse as it has been reported that after the first nuclear power plant’s dome cracked, exploded and is now experiencing at least a partial nuclear meltdown, a second reactor is now in danger of the same.

Interestingly of the writing of this article, there were reports that the Japanese government still has not admitted that there has been an explosion at the first reactor plant even though there is video evidence of the event.

Like I said, that anyone would trust what the government says is simply astounding to me. How many times do people need to be lied to before they start to get suspicious? Need I remind dear reader by going through a litany of lies over these past few years? How about Swine Flu, SARS, bird flu, Mad Cow disease, AIDS, etc.?

The nuclear accident is a good example of how a government lies. It shows in undeniable proof of how a bureaucrat changes their story every few hours. Of course, after things gets bad and people die, the politicians always have the excuse that they, “Didn’t want people to panic” so they use this as justification for their fibs. Though they will never admit that they lied or were wrong.

Reuters Reported:

Radiation leaked from a damaged Japanese nuclear reactor north of Tokyo on Saturday, the government said, after an explosion blew the roof off the facility in the wake of a massive earthquake.

The developments raised fears of a meltdown at the plant as officials scrambled to contain what could be the worst nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl explosion in 1986 that shocked the world.

The Japanese plant was damaged by Friday’s 8.9-magnitude earthquake, which sent a 10-metre (33-foot) tsunami ripping through towns and cities across the northeast coast. Japanese media estimate that at least 1,300 people were killed.

“We are looking into the cause and the situation and we’ll make that public when we have further information,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said after confirming the explosion and radiation leak at the plant.

Edano said an evacuation radius of 10 km (6 miles) from the stricken 40-year-old Daiichi 1 reactor plant in Fukushima prefecture was adequate, but an hour later the boundary was extended to 20 km (13 miles). TV footage showed vapor rising from the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Catch that? They said that a six-mile radius was sufficient, but an hour later, they change it to 13 miles? I hope that dear reader will trust me when I tell you that just 24 hours before they said that there was no danger at all. I also hope dear reader believes me that this same politician denied that there was an explosion even hours after the video of the explosion was shown on TV.

This is a terrible situation indeed, but there is a very important lesson in life for all of us in this mess. I believe that this is a lesson that is teaching us personal responsibility and it is also teaching us to have a healthy skepticism of the state and its proclamations.

Consider: On Friday, soon after the earthquake struck, it was reported that the Japanese electrical company that was running the nuclear power plant was experiencing difficulties at the plant. The reports said that even though they had shut down the reactor – for fear of damage – the temperature of the reactor inner core was still rising. The company said they were making all efforts to contain the problem.

At the same time, the Japanese government claimed that there was no danger of a radiation leak and that engineers were getting the situation under control. I see that most of the early reports concerning this disaster and government reaction have disappeared into the memory hole, but here’s one. This report was released at about 1 pm on Saturday March 12, 2011.

NOTE: The rolling power outages have begun and our power will be off for about 5 hours starting in 8 minutes. I will attempt to stay in contact. I have a brief blog about the power outages here.

From Reuters:

“It’s possible that radioactive material in the reactor vessel could leak outside but the amount is expected to be small and the wind blowing towards the sea will be considered,” Chief Cabinet Yukio Edano told a news conference.

Possible?.. Small amount?… No big deal, right? Sure. Move along, nothing to see here folks. I think only a fool would take what this clown says at face value.

(By the way, it is now confirmed that 9 people have radiation poisoning with at least 160 more are suspected of it. So much for government announcements that it is safe.)

My entire point here is that the government screws up constantly and, if you take what they say for God-given truth, then you probably deserve what you get. If anyone should know the truth in that statement it should be the Japanese. They’ve had experience with disasters and a government who lied to them about a similar disaster to today called Minamata.

Now, before you, dear reader, go on to protest and defend the statist position in that, “The government must report something!” Let me say that as broadcaster with over 30 years experience, it’s an argument that I completely disagree with (and I will save for another day). Sure, the government will make their announcements, the point of this article is whether you should believe them at face value or not.

Let me point out to you one more critical factor in my argument: These nuclear power plants need a license to operate. Who grants these licenses? The government, that’s who. This means that citizens who are damaged by any errors of that power plant only have recourse in taking action against that government in court should anything go wrong. Think about that. It was the government who gave the approval for that plant to be built where it is built. It was the government who gave the approval for the safety precautions of that plant. The free market was nowhere to be seen in these events.

So if the government were responsible should the SHTF then do you actually think they would tell us the truth and take the risk of losing their jobs in the next election? I don’t think so.

I wonder if an electric power company were liable in civil and criminal court for damages– which, because of Japanese law, they are not – would they be building government approved-nuclear power plants on earthquake fault lines? I doubt it.

So the government created this situation and, as usual, the government must cover up and spin the results of this mess.

Now, dear reader, I ask you, do you still believe that you should believe government pronouncements as to whether or not it’s safe to go outside or drink the water or breathe the air?

Who knows what’s best for you and your family’s safety more than you do? As a former broadcaster, all I can say is that you must gather all the available information you can – remembering that there are those who have certain motivations for what they pronounce – and judge what’s best for yourself by yourself.

Your life and your children’s lives depend upon it. Take this opportunity to teach your children well… If you don’t teach them, the government will.

_______________________

Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers [send him mail] was born and raised in the USA and moved to Japan in 1984. He is the president of an Internet & Cross Media advertising/marketing agency and a media production company named Universal Vision. He writes about marketing, the Internet and Social Media at the Modern Marketing Japan blog. His book, Schizophrenic in Japan, went on sale in 2005.

Copyright © 2011 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

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