An interesting one from ZeroHedge in which Tepco finally admits that the (seemingly) alarmist news reporting about the situation in Japan is actually not too far from the truth :

TEPCO Director Weeps After Disclosing Truth About Fukushima Disaster

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TEPCO managing director Akio Komori who was openly weeping as he leaves a conference to brief journalists on the true situation at Fukushima, following his acknowledgment that the radiation spewing from the over-heating reactors and fuel rods was enough to kill some citizens. “A senior Japanese minister also admitted that the country was overwhelmed by the scale of the tsunami and nuclear crisis. He said officials should have admitted earlier how serious the radiation leaks were.

During the last week I think I have read just about every permutation from “they are talking bollocks, its all fine” to “we are all going to die” both in the news media and on several blogs.

I have resisted the temptation to write about the reactor problems as it is still far from clear what is actually happening given the conflicting reports coming from all directions (I admit here to being a Nuclear Engineer who has chosen a completely different career path so I do know a thing or two about these things).

The only thing I did actually believe is that both the Japanese Government and Tepco were not being entirely open with the truth of the situation. That half the country is truly fucked anyway and a hell of a lot of people are fending for themselves, I can understand their caution in giving the full facts as they do not need a stampede on their hands to add to all the other problems.

I do hope they manage to salvage something from this situation soon but, having seen the photographs of the twisted mess that the reactors have turned into coupled with the dangerous levels of radiation near the plant itself, I have a feeling that it isn’t going to have a good ending for large parts of Japan.

Picture from The Dail Mail who are carrying the story.