Reply #9: Who is "leaving out" anything?

[kristopher]

The question relates to the cost of Fukushima meltdown. Is it forbidden by you to discuss that impact as a discrete category of damage?

We actually do have a basic model for comparison, however. In 1995 Kobe experienced a severe earthquake that killed 6000 people. In that case there were 1.2 million volunteers that participated in the rescue and recovery efforts within about the first 10 weeks of the disaster.

With that as a benchmark it is going to be far easier to tease out data that lets us identify both the financial and human costs that are to be debited against the use of fissioning radioactive toxins to boil water.

For example here we are more than a month into the crisis and relatives are still asking for someone to look for the bodies of their loved ones in the area. To accomplish that the police must expose themselves to:

Radiation Surges in Japan as Police Search for Bodies
Apr 14, 2011 – 5:19 AM

Mari Yamaguchi and Shino Yuasa
AP
TOKYO - A new glitch in the cooling of used fuel at Japan's crippled nuclear plant prompted a surge in radiation, but an overall decline in leaks allowed police Thursday to search for missing tsunami victims closer to the complex than ever before.

Police in protective gear scoured a 6-mile radius around the Fukushima Dai-ichi for the first time Thursday as part of their search for thousands of victims still missing after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

"We need to work very carefully so as not to rip our radiation suits with the debris, metal and chunks of concrete scattered everywhere in the zone," a police officer who gave only his surname, Sato, said in a telephone interview.

Although Japanese officials have insisted the situation at the crippled plant is improving, the crisis has dragged on, accompanied by a nearly nonstop series of mishaps and aftershocks of the 9.0-magnitude quake that have impeded work in clearing debris and restoring the plant's disabled cooling systems.