Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Tepco's Video Release Is a PR Move With Little Substance


Majia here: Why doesn't Tepco tell us about the condition of unit 3? Why don't they tell us how much radioactive water is going into the ocean everyday? Why don't they tell us where the hot, damaged fuel rods were stored after being lifted by the crane?

Tepco is not going to reveal any evidence about the real state of the reactors or how they got there.

Thus, it is not surprising to see this headline in the Asahi Shimbun:

"ANALYSIS: TEPCO's edited video sheds little light on truth" http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201208070055

[Excerpted] The condensed teleconference videos provided by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to media organizations only drew attention to the fact that they would not offer a clearer picture of what really happened in the crucial days following last year's accident at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

Because TEPCO has refused to disclose all of the videos, no judgment can be made on whether its editing of the audio and video is appropriate.

Although TEPCO has provided a total of 150.5 hours of video to major media organizations, each organization is only provided with two computers on which to watch those videos, and is allowed only six hours every weekday until Sept. 7 for viewing. The organizations are also prohibited from making any video or audio recordings and cannot report the names of TEPCO workers except for those executives whose names already appear in the report compiled by the TEPCO investigative panel looking into the accident.

The video released to media organizations also contains 1,665 separate instances of beeping and 29 instances of blurred video images...."
[end quote]


MAJIA HERE: Now let us look at some headlines from Fukushima Diary:

Tepco executives disappeared from emergency headquarters after the explosion of reactor1
[excerped] NHK reported an executive declared “dissolution” and most of the managing executives left the countermeasures office in the head office in the night of 3/12/2011, when reactor1 exploded.
Former president, Shimizu left too. The countermeasures office was to support the workers in Fukushima plant.

Tepco states engineers remained to support Fukushima plant in disaster.

Tepco released video of emergency TV meeting “99.3% cut off, 1665 beep sounds, 29 image concealment”

MAJIA HERE: NHK confirms Fukushima Diary's report that top executives left the plant. The NHK story also indicates that there are 2 versions of the video and that the version released to the media is extensively censored (90 minutes versus 150 hours):

TEPCO executives leave HQ amid crisis
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120807_06.html

[Excerpted] Video footage released by Tokyo Electric Power Company shows the utility's executives leaving the Tokyo headquarters as the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was unfolding.

The scene is part of 150 hours of footage released on Monday. But the image is not available to the public as it is not on the 90-minute version provided to the media.

The full-length video shows then-TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu and most other executives on the company's taskforce leaving the office late on March 12th last year, the day after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the power plant. A hydrogen explosion occurred at the No.1 reactor that afternoon.

TEPCO officials say their engineers remained to deal with the situation....

...The media were only allowed to watch the footage on personal computers at the headquarters. TEPCO does not allow reporters to make copies.
Aug. 6, 2012 - Updated 20:28 UTC (05:28 JST) [end quote]


Majia here: Releasing the video is intended to convey transparency;

however, it merely reinforces to everyone following this disaster closely that Tepco's high level executives prioritize their security and "face" over the lives of all those people and ecosystems being adversely impacted by Fukushima.




No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.