Sounds like a prelude to dropping more bad news. Hard to tell if this is spin or whitewash.
DATE, Fukushima–Many residents in Date and Minami-Soma, both in Fukushima Prefecture, have been confused by a newly announced government plan to designate specific points from which residents would be advised to leave if the annual accumulated radiation there exceeds 20 millisieverts.
The article goes on to describe a system wherein people beyond the existing evacuation zones may or may not be told that they should evacuate but don’t have to, depending upon whether or not the radiation rises in their area. Yeah, I don’t get it either.
Off the top of my head, the possibilities for radiation rising later include:
- Deposition from an ill wind.
- Concentration by existing forces (watershed concentrates to streams, then irrigated fields, for example)
- Emergent conditions at the plant itself causing widespread problems.
- Existing problems at the plant causing widespread problems.
- Existing widespread problems being admitted to belatedly.
- Existing “narrow” problems, like chunks of radioactive source material ejected farther than previously thought. Or admitted.
I realize that this is all difficult and that a lot of people are working hard. The problem is that only a fool would trust the Japanese government or the Japanese nuclear power industry at their word, after decades of, er, nonsense.
Sorry, but this sounds like stage-setting for more bad news, already known, but not yet admitted.
