• Anger in Japan Over Withheld Radiation Forecasts - NYTimes.com
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/world/asia/09japan.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

    Meltdowns at three of Fukushima Daiichi’s six reactors went officially unacknowledged for months. In one of the most damning admissions, nuclear regulators said in early June that inspectors had found tellurium 132, which experts call telltale evidence of reactor meltdowns, a day after the tsunami — but did not tell the public for nearly three months.

    Critics inside and outside the Kan administration argue that some of the exposure could have been prevented if officials had released the data sooner.

    However, Mr. Kosako said, the prime minister’s office refused to release the results even after it was made aware of Speedi, because officials there did not want to take responsibility for costly evacuations if their estimates were later called into question.

    Mr. Hosono, the minister charged with dealing with the nuclear crisis, has said that certain information, including the Speedi data, had been withheld for fear of “creating a panic.” In an interview, Mr. Hosono — who now holds nearly daily news conferences with Tepco officials and nuclear regulators — said that the government had “changed its thinking” and was trying to release information as fast as possible.

    Critics, as well as the increasingly skeptical public, seem unconvinced.