My Darlin' Fukishima
(Sing to the tune of My Darlin' Clementine)
Fukushima, Fukushima, no one cares, you're melting down.
News attention makes slight mention
Of the danger, on the ground.
TEPCO liars, and conspirers, in the government are mum.
As the threat from radiation
Grows some more and threatens doom.
While they spill their dire pollutants, we sit here, without a clue.
As our media and the net news
Move along, to something new.
The US media is no longer talking much about Fukushima, except for occasional reports of economic effects from the disaster in the business press. Why?
It's not because everything at Fukushima is under control and all the leaks have stopped and there is no longer any reason for concern. It's not under control, it's still leaking and until its a long time over, we won't know how serious this will turn out to be. But we can already tell that in the end, Fukushima will fall on the Seriousimeter somewhere between Very Serious and Oh My God! Run!
So, why has Fukushima so much ceased to be important news to most Americans? Perhaps it has something to do with a remarkably effective stonewall erected by TEPCO, aided and abetted by the Japanese government, to deliberately suppress, delay, embargo and otherwise sequester and conceal information about operations at the disaster site and conditions in the surrounding countryside. Left unfed, the story dies and the media moves on to greener pastures.
USA's quick loss of attention to Fukushima does not bode well for getting a national dialogue genuinely started on the future of nuclear power in the USA. The present pathway leads to more US plants and re-permitting for extended lifetimes of existing plants. We need candidates who favor reversing federal policies that are forcing us onto this path.