April 13, 2011

Japan raising the disaster status - this knob goes to seven

The Japanese had initially classified the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant as a 4. They then raised it to a 5 when the core melted down. Now, they bypassed 6 and raised it to a 7 -- the highest on the scale. I talk to people in the Bakery who think that this is because everything has melted down and the entire nation is vomiting fourth high levels of radioactivity. I had some other thoughts and this article at Yahoo/Reuters backs me up:
Russia's nuclear chief says Japan exaggerating crisis
Japanese authorities may be exaggerating the scope of the country's nuclear disaster to reduce the liabilities of insurance companies, Russia's nuclear chief said on Wednesday.

Japanese officials on Tuesday upgraded the severity of the emergency at the tsunami-damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant to a 7, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the world's worst.

"It is hard for me to assess why the Japanese colleagues have taken this decision. I suspect, this is more of a financial issue, than a nuclear one," Sergei Kiriyenko said on the sidelines of a meeting of major developing economies in southern China.

"I guess that maybe it could be linked to the definition of force-majeure with regard to insurance. I would pay attention to that. It is a bit strange," Kiriyenko said without further elaboration.
When everything else fails, follow the money... Posted by DaveH at April 13, 2011 4:04 PM
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