The NY Times covers some "vote with your feet" news about the damaged Fukushima plant and its ongoing radiation leaks:
Japanese officials began quietly encouraging people to evacuate a larger swath of territory around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant on Friday, a sign that they hold little hope that the crippled facility will soon be brought under control.
and
In the latest setback to the effort to contain the nuclear crisis, evidence emerged that the reactor vessel of the No. 3 unit may have been damaged, an official said Friday. The development, described at a news conference by Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director-general of the Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, raises the possibility that radiation from the mox fuel in the reactor — a combination of uranium and plutonium — could be released.
and in terms of
risk communication:
Officials continue to be dogged by suspicions that they are not telling the entire story about the radiation leaks. Shunichi Tanaka, former acting chairman of the country’s Atomic Energy Commission, told The Japan Times in an interview published Friday that the government was being irresponsible in forcing people from their homes around the damaged plant without explaining the risks they were facing.
“The government has not yet said in concrete terms why evacuation is necessary to the people who have evacuated,” he said.
CSM adds:
Japan nuclear update: Possible reactor breach, evacuation zone expanding
Three workers waded Thursday through water with critically elevated radiation levels. They are now being monitored, and officials are encouraging residents outside the initial evacuation zone to relocate.
That's not to say things are getting worse, and we're all doomed. Still, there's no reason to assume everything's under complete control, either, despite the heroic efforts of some of those workers in the reactor facility. What's called for now (and has always been called for) is complete transparency from TEPCO and Japanese officials.
Well, if you don't trust the government, do it yourself. ScienceInsider posts a crowd sourcing set of websites you can turn to to check out radiation levels. One of my favorites is here:
There are now hundreds of radiation-related feeds from Japan on Pachube,
Google Earth screenshot
monitoring conditions in realtime and underpinning more than half a dozen incredibly valuable applications built by people around the world. They combine 'official' data, 'unofficial' official data, and, most importantly to us, realtime networked geiger counter measurements contributed by concerned citizens. Now we're even seeing some tracking radiation measurements of tap water.
Some of the people to thank for this incredible effort are Shigeru Kobayashi, haiyan zhang, Motoi Shimizu, Takahiro Kakumaru, takashi kondo and Marian Steinbach. Big shout out to all of them!
Needless to say, if Japanese citizens (and citizens of the world) are doing this, it's a big push for TEPCO and Japanese officials to keep up with and explain the data.
It doesn't matter whether they want to. Given the internet, they have to.