"This is what Dr Theodore Postol, professor of Science, Technology and International Security calls “bureaucratic ass-covering mode”. Edano, and the lumbering bureaucratic safety monster in general, simply aren’t sure what the hell is going on in Tokyo’s water,
...so rather than give one answer and be damned by history, it provides two, entirely contradictory answers. What better insurance policy than that! The water is safe and unsafe – avoid it and drink up!"
I found this analogy in the article 'There's no such thing as safe radiation' by Sam Biddle in Gizmodo.
This pic is irrelevant to the subject matter, for effects only.
"Since Fukushima failed, the Japanese government and power plant reps have obscured the danger of the Fukushima crisis-and it is a crisis. The word “safe” has been tossed about loosely. Unfortunately, when it comes to radiation, there’s no such thing.
Now, there is no cloud of lethal radioactive vapour headed toward your house right now. If you’re outside of Japan, as I write this, there’s no evidence that you’re in any imminent danger from what’s spewing out of Fukushima.
Nothing I’ll write here is meant to scare you, because we shouldn’t be scared.
But we shouldn’t be ignorant either. And, largely, we are. Japanese authority figures have taken steps, whether deliberately or out of pure ineptitude, to whitewash the danger of the Fukushima’s radiation. Speaking out of both sides of his mouth, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yukio Edano said that Tokyo’s drinking water was both safe and unsafe. Levels of iodine 131, a radioactive isotope that clogs your thyroid gland and can have devastating effects children, was found to be 110 becquerels per liter above the safe level. The evacuation zone surrounding the plant was expanded by 11km – but only as a voluntary, not mandatory move. The government has advanced and retreated on the danger of irradiated food, with clear internal discord. The radiation limit deemed unsafe was suddenly erased and replaced with a new figure, on the fly. And just today, the TEPCO said it’ll start dumping thousands of tons of contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean – an act they’re saying poses ”no major health risk”.
Nevermind that, before the Fukushima disaster, the average person outside of a physics classroom had zero idea in radioactive hell what a becquerel is. Nevermind that the entire concept of a safe level of radiation has been shown to be demonstrably elastic..."
More:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/04/theres-no-such-thing-as-safe-radiation/
Well, locally in Malaysia, our political leaders refused to learn from history (Asian Rare Earth in Ipoh, Perak during Dr. Mahathir's watch) http://www.consumer.org.my/index.php/health/454-chronology-of-events-in-the-bukit-merah-asian-rare-earth-developments
and gave approvals (despite strong objections and public demonstrations) to Lynas in Gebeng, Pahang (home state of present PM and Tun's protege, Najib Tun Razak).
Without going into details well documented elsewhere, it is clear that we are like the proverbial 'fools rush in where angels fear to tread', simply because we allow processing of rare earth to start despite not having sorted out what to do with its waste! Every sane person can see that Australia did not want such a plant, what made our decision-makers think that they will take back waste from it? To put it simply and bluntly, it is like letting someone shit before we have a proper toilet for him.
