Gorilla's Blog

The Japanese government, which is at last admitting what everyone else has known for some time: the Fukushima nuclear disaster will render large parts of that Japanese region uninhabitable for decades…

Throughout this crisis, the Japanese government has seemed unprepared and disorganized. It’s not helped by a regulatory framework that’s very friendly to nuclear power or a refusal to admit that nuclear power is probably finished for good in Japan.

Gorilla says: “Not ready for a tsunami and not able to overcome it!”

Japan, whose government clearly covered up the scope of the Fukushima disaster…

The latest version is that radiation leakage was double the previous claim and that meltdowns occurred in 3 plants within the first week.

And of course their nuclear regulators, like our airline regulators, are part of an agency whose job is to promote the industry.

Gorilla says: “It’s terabecquerel!”

Everyone’s forgotten about Japan, but the nuclear disaster there shows no signs of ending…

The exclusion zone’s been extended and damaged plants are still leaking radiation.

The government seems unable to find a solution that won’t take months or years to reduce the fallout.

Gorilla says: “We might learn something about building nuclear plants in earthquake zones, or we might not!”

In Japan, where they just can’t seem to figure out either what’s going on or why the story keeps changing.

It appears that the nuclear plant disaster was far worse than Japan admitted, and is still not under control.

The rest of the world has moved on, of course: bin Laden is still dead!

What’s troubling is that governments who are in hock to corporate interests always seem to put those interests ahead of the truth.

Gorilla says: “Americans have heard this song over and over again!”

As has been apparent for at least 3 weeks, the Japanese don’t have a clue about the nuclear meltdowns occurring at their aging nuclear plants.

So far, it’s been a case of “don’t worry, under control” followed by “panic stations, now!”.

Is there anything good to come out of this disaster, now as bad as Chernobyl?

Yes, three things:

1) Nuclear power is dead for at least another generation. Regardless of the relatively tiny number of casualties (in comparison to those in oil, gas, and coal mining), the fear factor is both staggering and decisive.

2) Japan will at last begin to spend real money on infrastructure that matters. Rebuilding should get the economy moving, although it may take a few years.

3) Japan will at last recognize that it cannot keep its domestic market essentially closed. With fishing and farming pretty much dead in the water for the next decade, Japanese consumers will at last have some competition and deflation may, after 20 years, be conquered.

Gorilla says: “The silver lining isotope may outlast the rest!”

Japan: clearly not in control of the nuclear problem.

And that’s why nuclear power has zero future anywhere.

Although the death toll may be less than 1 percent of what it costs to get oil and gas, perception is everything, and the perception is that those who build and regulate nuclear power don’t understand it at all.

Gorilla says: “What radiates is fear, and fear is in control!”

The problem with Japan is that they seem not to know what’s really going on with their reactors.

It’s not a serious threat to anyone outside Japan, but the sense ordinary citizens have is (yet again) that what people in authority keep telling us isn’t actually true.

Gorilla says: “No surprise there, then!”

In Japan, where nobody seems to know what’s going on with the nuclear reactors.

Over the weekend, it was cautious optimism that things were getting under control, today not so much.

And radiation levels are rising in the food chain.

Gorilla says: “The warm glow is not yet one of success!”