Japan Disaster to Level Seven: "The Explosion of Nukespeak"

The Japanese government has raised the emergency at the Fukushima nuclear plant to level seven, from a level five. This puts it at the highest level, as was Chernobyl.

KARL GROSSMAN
Grossman and others have been advocating raising the emergency level as a first step for weeks. Professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury, Grossman is author of Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power and Power Crazy.

He said today: "Finally, the Japanese government is acknowledging a little reality. But the sad fact is that the Fukushima disaster is beyond a level seven disaster, it's off the books. You have multiple reactors and cooling pools.

Grossman just wrote the piece "Fukushima Nuclear Disaster at One Month: The Explosion of Nukespeak,'" which states: "The classic book on disinformation on nuclear technology is Nukespeak, published in 1982. It is dedicated to George Orwell, author of 1984, and written by Stephen Hilgarten, Richard C. Bell and Rory O'Connor.

"It opens by declaring that 'the history of nuclear development has been profoundly shaped by the manipulation through official secrecy and extensive public-relations campaigns. Nukespeak and the use of information-management techniques have consistently distorted the debate over nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Time and time again, nuclear developers have confused their hopes with reality, publicly presented their expectations and assumptions as facts, covered up damaging information, harassed and fired scientists who disagreed with established policy, refused to recognize the existence of problems ... claimed that there was no choice but to follow their policies.'"

See: IPA news release "Chernobyl Experts: Fukushima Could be Worse" from March 23.