explosion heard, Monday night US, 5/31

...and the Japanese people, and Asians, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Okay, so, yeah, I'm having a little laugh with the title of this post (you "fear doesn't take a holiday" wags can't have ALL the fun, y'know), but it's all in service of a serious point: TEPCO, the government of Japan, and to a certain extent, the IAEA and the entirety of the nuclear power industry, has a real problem on their hands, here: NO ONE BELIEVES A DAMN THING THEY SAY, anymore. Healthy skepticism is one thing; total, unremmiting, manifest incredulity is quite another, and in its own way it's as big a threat and a danger as anything currently being expelled from what the Japanese media, euphemistically and increasingly ridiculously, insists on calling "the troubled Fukushima" nuclear plant. I mean, really, folks; I'm as much a fan of understatement and stoic reserve as anyone -- I'm three-eighths British, after all -- but referring to the Fukushima Dai-ichi facility as "troubled" is a little like calling Adolf Hitler "prejudiced". Although it may TECHNICALLY be accurate, and certainly cannot be realistically refuted, it just doesn't even BEGIN to cover it, folks.

But here's my point: For better or worse, the Japanese government, that nation's various nuclear agencies and industrial entities (NSC, NISA, JAIF, etc.), and the IAEA itself are ALL taking their cues from TEPCO, an organization that has now, I think, more than proven itself to be not merely complacent, aloof, and incompetent, but also deceitful, unconcerned, and borderline diabolical in its consistently incomplete, inaccurate, opaque, unreliable, and outright fictitious public statements and data. And the entirety of the industry, and to a certain extent even affiliated scientific institutions and expert analysts, is being, unfortunately, tarred with the same disbelieving brush; how else is it possible that the stalwart staff of BRAWM, of all possible candidates, could have THEIR integrity questioned, fully three months in to a seemingly limitless, all but thankless public-health initiative WITH NO EQUAL ANYWHETE IN THE WORLD?

Here's an uncomfortable truth: Most of the people in the world with ANY manner of expertise in the fields of nuclear reactor design, maintenance, and operation, atomic energy safety, environmental risks and consequences of nucleat techmology, and medical implications of radiological contamination, are, to some extent, products of, and at least nominal beneficiaries of, the very industry we are all now so ready to disregard, disbelieve and dismiss as abusive, destructive and damned. But, look: If you want to know about the mechanics, risks and realities of flying, you have to talk to a pilot, right? Or an aeronautical engineer, or an airplane mechanic, or a member of the NTSB. There is simply no escaping this dilemma: We are RELIANT on nuclear experts for data, interpretation and explanation. We MUST be able to have confidence in what the REAL experts in these fields are telling us... The alternative is that EVERYTHING anyone who might actually KNOW what they're talking about is saying, is suspect, and therefore, ultimately, worthless. And that doesn't do ANYONE any damn good at all, because at THAT point, all we're left with for "reliable sources" are the bloggers, the doomsdayers, the armchair professors, and the egoistical... and people like me. That ought to scare the Hell out of everyone reading this; it certainly does me.

It's time for the people who are TRULY "expert", who are "in the know", the lettered, the experienced, the leaders at the forefront of nuclear research and theory and technology, to step forward and DEMAND that TEPCO get their house in order, pull their shit together and stop f---ing their reputation over. If there are hard truths to be divulged, terrible realities to be aclnowledged, ugly possibilities to be considered, let's have 'em, NOW; the truth won't get any easier to swallow, no matter how long it's delayed, how well it's obscured or how effectively it's obfuscated. It's well past time for TEPCO, the government of Japan and the IAEA to come clean, be clear and reveal ALL that they know, so that the rest of humanity can begin to come to terms with, make preparations for and wotk toward mitigating whatever's coming. Being blindsided by the inevitable will do NO ONE any favors. A bad moon is rising, and we will NEED the expertise, the ingenuity and the discernment of the nuclear community, NO MATTER HOW UNCOMFORTABLE, UNDESIRABLE OR HOW UNPALATABLE THAT MAY BE TO SOME. We will NEED to have CONFIDENCE IN WHAT YOU SAY, what facts and figures you present to us, what interpretations and inferences you arrive at, what opinions and perspectives and conclusions you promote, and what plans and remedies, if possible, you may advocate. WE WILL NEED YOUR GIFTS, YOUR TALENTS AND YOUR KNOWLEDGE, and WE WILL NEED IT UNDIMINISHED. Like it or not, I believe nuclear experts in ALL their various disciplines, milieus and agendas are about to become CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO THE SPECIES AS A WHOLE, and npt merely to this company or that industry or those ideologues or the other interest groups. We need you, credible, untarnished and incontrovertible. Time to tell TEPCO: STOP F---ING THIS UP. For ALL our sakes.

And if TEPCO ISN'T the right entity to get things done... Then they need to hear THAT, too. Because, by remaining silent, like it or not, you are tacitly ENDORSING TEPCO's actions... And lining up with them in the court of public opinion, and, perhaps, against your own best interests... and those of us all.

Rick Cromack.
Allen, Texas

The information about the explosion also came from Tepco.