http://nuclear-news.net/2013/09/28/how-japan-lied-its-way-into-the-2020-olympic-games/#more-57822
The Namie Town Assembly
unanimously passed the Sept. 20 protest resolution stating that there
is a “serious problem” with Abe’s remarks as they “contradict
reality.”
Fukushima Out of Control Did Japan Lie Its Way
Into the Olympics? CounterPunch WEEKEND EDITION
SEPTEMBER 27-29, 2013 by PETER LEE In
order to secure the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for Tokyo, Japan’s Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe assured the IOC that the Fukushima situation was
“under control”, per
AFP:“Let me assure you the situation is under control,” [Abe] said.
“It has never done or will do any damage to Tokyo.”
Abe replied decisively when pressed by veteran Norwegian IOC member Gerhard Heiberg over Fukushima.
“You should read past the headlines and look at the facts,” he said.
“The contaminated water has been contained in an area of the harbour only 0.3 square kilometres big.
“There have been no health problems and nor will there be. I will be taking responsibility for all the programmes with regard to the plant and the leaks.”It looks like the key point, to paraphrase Bill Clinton is “what your definition of ‘situation’ is”. If the “situation” is currently officially stated radiological hazards to Tokyo and Olympic participants thanks to Fukushima, the answer is a qualified “yes”.
That is, if the Japanese government continues to give public credence to rather unfounded Tepco optimism that the Fukushima clusterfuck will simply maintain the current trend of dumping radioactive water into the ocean and the main danger to denizens of Tokyo involves getting radioactive sushi from some tuna caught out in the Pacific.
After Shinzo Abe came home from scoring the Olympics, he announced that the Japanese government would participate more actively in the faltering Tepco effort.
At the same time, Abe took pains not to stint on the denialist BS that underpinned the Olympics bid, as if the main problem was not hundreds of tons of sizzling fuel rods and thousands of gallons of radioactive water, but “rumours”:
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered the scrapping of two Fukushima nuclear reactors that survived the 2011 tsunami, a write-off that threatens to complicate a turnaround plan the operator has presented to creditors.
He also said he stood by his commitments to the International Olympic Committee of insuring a safe 2020 Summer Games.
“I will work hard to counter rumours questioning the safety of the Fukushima plant,” he said.Some fact if not rumour-obsessed locals explicitly rebutted Abe’s contention that the situation was “under control”. Per Mainichi Shimbun:
The town assembly of nuclear disaster-hit Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, passed a protest resolution against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sept. 20 for declaring the situation surrounding the radioactively contaminated water leaks at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant “under control.”
The prime minister made the controversial comments during Tokyo’s final presentation at the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s general meeting in Buenos Aires on Sept. 7, saying, “Some may have concerns about Fukushima. Let me assure you, the situation is under control.” He also said the effect of the water leak has been “completely blocked” within the 0.3 square kilometers of the plant’s harbor.
The Namie Town Assembly unanimously passed the Sept. 20 protest resolution stating that there is a “serious problem” with Abe’s remarks as they “contradict reality.” The protest also calls the situation at the plant, where some 300 metric tons of radioactively contaminated water is leaking into the ocean every day, “serious.”
“The situation has never been ‘under control,’ nor is the contaminated water ‘completely blocked,’” the protest read.
There is no guarantee that the current Fukushima clusterfuck will not get an upgrade. Per anti-nuclear activist and CounterPunch writer Harvey Wasserman:………..
As for the Olympics bid itself, it looks like the Abe administration followed the Karl Rove formula for political jiu jitsu, namely attack your opponent’s strength and turn it into weakness…….
Refusing to regard the Fukushima situation as a liability, the Abe team turned on the waterworks to make the tsunami disaster the emotional centerpiece of its bid:
The effects of the tsunami and earthquake – killing over 18,000 people – was never far from the lips of the presentation team……
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/09/27/did-japan-lie-its-way-into-the-olympics/
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