Good lord
by digby
Via Atrios, in other news ...
Japan may raise the severity of its nuclear accident to seven - the top level on an international scale - from five, the Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday, as workers battled to contain the crisis.
Kyodo said preliminary figures from the country's Nuclear Safety Commission revealed the battered Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had released up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour for several hours.
The calculation prompted Japan to consider upgrading the accident to the highest level - something that has only be given to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster - Kyodo said, citing unnamed government sources.
According to the INES, level 7 accidents release radioactive material of more than tens of thousands terabecquerels of radioactive iodine 131.
Haruki Madarame, chairman of the government-run commission, said it has estimated that the release of 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour continued for several hours, the report said.
It's hard for me to believe that the whole world isn't riveted on this story --- and maybe everyone but Americans are. This ongoing epic disaster is unfolding right before our eyes and yet we look away. Is it too much for us? Or are we just so self-absorbed that unless it affects us personally we lose interest?
I'm not blaming anyone. I have been just as obsessed with arcane beltway tomfoolery. It's odd though. We're talking about a major nuclear disaster happening in Japan, a first world nation (not that it makes it any worse but you would think it would make it something we could relate to.)
In any case, it's awful. And it's getting worse.
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