Japan's Ongoing Nuclear Disaster: Systematic Coverup About Spreading Radioactive Contamination From Destoyed Nuke Plants

March 23, 2011: Sailors scrub the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald
Reagan (CVN 76) following a countermeasure wash down to decontaminate the flight
deck while the ship is operating off the coast of Japan. Sailors scrubbed the external
surfaces on the flight deck and island superstructure to remove potential radiation
contamination. (Photo: US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Nicholas
A. Groesch / Flickr)

According to recently revealed U.S. Navy documents, more than 70 sailors on the Navy helicopters or among those who serviced those copters on the aircraft carrier USS Reagan suffered major radiation exposure, even after the ship was moved 100 miles away from Fukushima. The sailors' health complaints are consistent with victims who have suffered major radiation exposure. Neither the Japanese nor South Korean nor Guam governments would permit the Reagan to dock as it was radioactively "hot." The affected members of the crew have an ongoing civil suit for one-billion-dollar damages pending against Tepco. For the past three years, those interested in getting updated news from Fukushima have had to rely on bits and pieces of information in search of a coherent puzzle-picture.

By Bernard Weiner
Governments cite "national security" concerns and "official secrets" as their justification for withholding information from the public. Corporations rationalize their secrecy behind concerns about "patent infringement," shielding their trademarked "proprietary" secrets from competitors. But most of the time, such obfuscation is really derived from the time-honored villains of systemic corruption and what is politely known as CYA in military and bureaucratic slang.

Which brings us to Fukushima.

From the very beginning of this catastrophic emergency -- the earthquake/tsunami off the Japanese coast in March of 2011, when nuclear reactors at a power plant were flooded and then exploded and began their meltdowns -- the public in Japan and around the world have not been told the full story of what's been happening at the Dai-ichi nuclear-power plant in Fukushima province.
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