It’s fortunate that the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, the worst in its recorded history, didn’t kill more people and that the containment systems at the nuclear power plants mitigated radioactive damage as well as they did.
The Japanese are a steadfast, industrious people. They already have energetically set about the task of cleanup and rebuilding. When one considers the slow recovery in less-developed and less-disciplined nations after natural disasters of this magnitude, the performance of the Japanese will undoubtedly be exceptional.
Although serious, the fallout from damaged reactors at Japanese power plants will likely fall far short of the nuclear “catastrophe” that overwrought media accounts predicted. Reacting to that impression, terrified Americans snapped up potassium iodide pills to protect themselves from a Japanese radiation cloud. This is paranoid nonsense. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said there will be no “harmful levels of radioactivity given the thousands of miles between the two countries.”
In Japan, there was never any danger of a Chernobyl-like disaster. Chernobyl wasn’t a nuclear power plant. It was a Soviet nuclear weapons plant employing now-outdated technology with flammable graphite as a suppressant. Japan’s Fukushima reactors use non-flammable water and have three concentric containment layers. Chernobyl had no containment structure. Advanced technology in newer, Generation III reactors has already improved on Fukushima’s Generation II models. Lessons learned from this experience will lead to improvements in backup cooling systems and the storage of spent fuel rods. Lacking oil, coal and natural gas, Japan won’t be forsaking nuclear power anytime soon.
The media “meltdown” was to be expected. They’re geared toward sensationalism and alarmism. The newsboy on the corner screaming “Extra! Extra!” has been replaced with electronic media offering instantaneous communication. The Internet has upped the ante, and even the media establishment is Twittering these days. When there’s breaking news, the media spring into action. It’s their moment. They’re needed. In every newsroom, the adrenaline gushes.
Rivalry and competition within the media for the scoop, the “exclusive” interview and the most dramatic pictures inevitably lead to sensationalism. And then there’s the ego factor. Think Geraldo. The rewards in broadcast ratings and print circulation are less for accurate and circumspect coverage than for the dramatic or hyperbolic. Taken to an absurd extreme, you have the National Enquirer. As for alarmism, the penalties for under-alarming are greater than for over-alarming. If the ballyhooed event doesn’t materialize, the public is relieved and soon forgets the overblown warnings. If a catastrophe does come, the public is outraged that it wasn’t alerted.
In 1973, we were warned of a coming ice age; now, it’s global warming. Other unrealized disasters or pandemics include bird flu, swine flu, perpetual and accelerating Katrina-like hurricanes, acid rain, destruction of the ozone layer, killer bees from South America, and the Alar apples scare, not to mention Y2K.
In stoking fears about a Japanese nuclear catastrophe, there was also political opportunism at play. Greenies, not wanting to let a good crisis go to waste, hoped to drive a stake through the heart of nuclear power. Dr. Paul Walker was one who took to the airwaves with an authoritative demeanor warning of impending disaster. It turns out his Ph.D. is in political science, not nuclear physics, and he works for an anti-nuke outfit called Global Green USA — bankrolled, in part, by the left-wing Ploughshares Fund and its benefactor, George Soros.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that the media be censored. They’re an essential part of a free and open society. And I have no practical remedy for their theatrical excesses or political bias. This is just a good, object lesson in the need for the public to take what they see and hear through an informed and critical filter.
Freelance columnist Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
