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Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Trolls Posing as Nuclear Power Supporters at Public Meetings

The Kyushu Electric Power Company in Japan has been accused of misleading the public by stacking meetings with employees posing as ordinary citizens supporting nuclear power.

Broadcast: 17/10/2011
Reporter: Mark Willacy


Transcript:

ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: Following the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, the role of nuclear power in Japan is a topic of hot debate.

TEPCO, the power company which owns the Fukushima plant, has been heavily criticised for its response to the meltdown and for not revealing the full extent of the danger.

Now, another nuclear power company has also been accused of misleading the public.

The Kyushu Electric Power Company was found to have stacked public meetings with employees posing as ordinary citizens supporting nuclear power.

And the minister in charge of the nuclear industry has slammed the company, condemning it for watering down an independent report that found it guilty of twisting public opinion.

The ABC's North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

MARK WILLACY, REPORTER: The independent report into the Kyushu Electric Power Company was as unequivocal as it was damning. It found the nuclear power plant operator stacked a public meeting with undercover employees. It found Kyushu Electric had also sent in fake emails to a TV program about nuclear power. And it found the local governor had also conspired with the company to manipulate public opinion.

But the company has simply shrugged off the findings.

TOSHIO MANABE, KYUSHU ELECTRIC PRESIDENT: I believe it's unavoidable that there's a difference in opinion. We have our own view.

MARK WILLACY: In its official response to the independent findings, the company offered a watered-down report with hardly a mention of the governor's name. It prompted an angry response from the minister in charge of the nuclear industry.

YUKIO EDANO, INDUSTRY MINISTER: What were they thinking by submitting such a report to the people? They have some nerve doing this.

MARK WILLACY: Kyushu Electric's attempt to wriggle free of this scandal even drew a sharp rebuke from the author of the independent report.

NOBUO GOHARA, INDEPENDENT PANEL HEAD: It was just arrogant. They picked only the parts which were convenient for them.

MARK WILLACY: But in the wake of the Fukushima meltdowns, the atmosphere in Japan has changed in more ways than one, and the minister is now considering ordering Kyushu Electric to resubmit its report.

YUKIO EDANO: How can a public service company in good governance pick just the good parts from an independent report? It's a very serious problem.

MARK WILLACY: Kyushu Electric's audacious attempt to manipulate public opinion has only served to heighten scepticism here about the nuclear power companies, with many questioning the lengths the companies will go to to promote their business interests.

Mark Willacy, Lateline.
ABC Lateline Story and Video - Japanese nuclear company twists public opinion
at 10:18 AM Posted by JD
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Geiger Counters - Radiation Detection Meters - Handheld Radiation Detector



When it comes to radiation detection meters you really have a wide field of gadgets to choose from, however radiation detectors are the most common to use. First of all if you need to know what type of radiation you are looking for. There are Alpha, Beta and Gamma radiation detectors. And also there is neutron emission of nuclear radiation. And all these different types of emissions have radiation detectors for a specific type of radiation that you can buy radiation detector for. Some also measure both Alpha and Beta. Others detect Alpha, Beta and Gamma. While others let you measure Beta and Gamma radiation.



What most people have use for though are Dosimeters you can buy a handheld radiation detector pretty cheap that are good addition to a survival kit. There are different kinds that you can use that will detect radiation. There are radiation badges that will tell you when radiation become high. Workers at nuclear power plants use these to inform them of how much radiation they have been exposed to. Now also children in the Fukushima prefecture have each been given a radiation badge so they know if they are exposed to radiation. Some come in the shape of a pen that you can carry in your pocket while other are made more compact so that you can attach them to your keychain. And then you have what is called a personal radiation monitor. These are also called Dosimeters and also normally called Geiger counters. Although not all use the Geiger-Muller Tube for the radiation detection some use a semiconductor instead. These and mostly the older geiger counters seen are pretty big to carry around, so they might not be best suited for a survival situation where you only need to carry the most important things. However if you have land and want to check radiation around the property and drinking water then these are the geiger counters to get because they are very well built units.

These are the once that you normally see people use. They have different units of radiation detection, because when it comes to radiation there are many standards used. some give the measurements in Rads, while other use Sieverts. Some have the maximum radiation value for the measured radioactivity quite low but they will still give you an idea of the amount of radiation in the area. With the units ranging from between background radiation 0.001 mSv/hr all the way up to 10 Sv/h. Normally a dosimeter will measure radiation in micro siverts per hour. If you were to walk into one of the reactor units at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant you probably would get an error reading from your dosimeter because the radiation levels are so high there.

Note that some places outside the exclusion zone in Fukushima that are too radioactive for people to live in have areas where the radiation levels are above 30 Sv/h. So if you are in a area that have high radiation the radiation detectors would also there go off the scale. However Geiger counters or radiation detectors are still favored as general purpose alpha/beta/gamma portable radiation detectors and radiation detection equipment, due to their low cost and robustness. Most come with an LCD Display that show you the radioactivity in the area. Nowdays you will even get alarm sound and the possibility to connect the device to a computer. Either with a Infrared, Bluetooth or USB connection.

So if you look at the radiation detectors for sale that have this, then these radiation detection meters will allow you to make maps of contaminated areas that show where the radiation is high and low. This also will help you to see which areas are becoming more contaminated over time. With several nuclear reactors in the US and around the world located near fault zones that makes it a danger if a big earthquake would hit the area there is always a good choice to have a radiation dosimeter avaliable. I'm sure many in Fukushima would have been grateful to have dosimeters avaliable at the time of the disaster and I am sure you to would be grateful to have a geiger counter handy when you need one.

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