The Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission deliberately erased all the data collected regarding the radiation contamination of children in Fukushima Prefecture!

Officials claim that since the date was public it threatened the privacy of the families!

Since the nuclear disaster following the 11 March 2011 quake and tsunami, more than 1,000 children, aged 15 or younger, were being monitored for the effects of radiation on their thyroid.

The problem is that no one else was keeping such data, and now it’s gone!  The decision to delete the data is only justifying the growing lack of trust the Japanese have in their government.

First Tokyo Electric Power Company said there were no melt downs, as they struggled to cool the Fukushima Daiichi reactors with salty sea water.  Then TEPCo admitted there were melt downs in reactors 1 and 3, but said they were contained by the water at the bottom of the containment vessels.  Now an independent study says not so.

Tanabe Fumiya, an expert in nuclear safety, studied data from Reactor 3.  Reactor 3 uses MOX fuel.  Most of Reactor 3’s mixed uranium-plutonium oxide fuel might have made it through the containment vessel.  Fumiya says on 21 March 2011 TEPCo was unable to inject water to cool the reactor.  Over the next four days the fuel reheated and melted through.  This explains why plutonium is being found outside the reactors.

Not only is Tokyo Electric Popwer Company being targeted, but other nuclear plants in other parts of Japan are getting hit by demands to get outa town.

A meeting in Tokyo, of local community leaders from around Japan, demanded a quick end to the ongoing crisis at Fukushima Daiichi.  They also demanded a complete redo of Japan’s nuclear power policies.

Those local officials with nuclear power plants in their area are extremely worried, because it’s become obvious that no one can trust the plant operators, or national government agencies that are supposed to be regulating the plant operators.

In a hastily arranged press conference, on 04 August 2011, it was announced that the top three officials, in charge of nuclear power operations were fired.

More than four months after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, and with no end in sight, the Japanese government decided it was time for new blood.

Who’s being fired? Vice Minister of the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry, Matsunaga Kazuo.  Director General of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Terasaka Nobuaki.  Director General of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency, Hosono Tetsuhiro.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and the Natural Resources and Energy Agency are controlled by the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry.

The announcement was made by the Minister of the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry, Kaieda Banri.  Along with the dismissals, there will be a major reshuffling of all personnel within the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry.

The Japanese government announced they will create a new nuclear agency, to better respond to future nuclear disasters.  This after it’s painfully obvious that the current plethora of government agencies, tasked with dealing with the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, have failed.

The latest plan to revamp nuclear regulators involves creating an agency who’s sole job is to act as first responders to any future nuclear accident.  It will be created out of the current Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and placed under control of the Environment Ministry.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency would continue purely as a regulatory agency.

The new first responder agency would also be responsible for monitoring of radiation levels, and control of radioactive substances.

The current Nuclear Safety Commission would be placed under the Environment Ministry as well, and act as an adviser to the first responders.

Of course the Japanese government still has to vote on the plan, but seeing what’s happening in Japan right now, any politician who’d want things to stay the same is nuts.