Nuclear Japan: Latest News

BBC this morning: “A partial meltdown did occur in reactor 1.”

According to BBC reporter Richard Black: “On Sunday, officials said the same thing was suspected in reactor 3 – although later, they appeared to retract this statement.”

This morning I heard many conflicting reports about the worst of the nuclear situation in Japan being over vs the possibility of future meltdowns in the day to come. The wildly conflicting data means that the possible risks are wildly variable.

One eyewitness confirmed my concerns to the BBC: “The official line is that there is no danger of radiation exposure, but we have been hearing conflicting things from unofficial sources and we didn’t want to take the risk.” True this is lesser quality evidence, but I’m suspicious. Are you?

New York Times: “the developments – perhaps the worst involving a nuclear plant since Chernobyl 25 years ago.” Japan is preparing to distribute iodine to the population near the nuclear power plant. For more info on iodine and preventive dosing, click here.

Please share what you’re learning and your sources.

This crisis reminds me of surgery: make difficult choices rapidly with limited information.