World must share nuclear data
The damaged No. 4 unit of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex in northeastern Japan Credit: AP
The lack of speedy and detailed information coming from Japan about the nuclear emergency there has prompted Yukiya Amano, the director general of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, to announce that he would leave for Japan "as soon as possible" to assess the situation.
Really, that fast? Why wasn't he there already? A possible nuclear catastrophe should be enough to have already gotten the world's experts on the scene and accurate information to the world.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu told Congress there is so little information that a team of experts from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, along with 17,200 pounds of equipment, was sent to Tokyo. Chu said the decision was made "for our own sake, to know what is really happening, directly, through our own instruments."
Meanwhile 6,000 miles away, an anti-radiation pill is sold out on the West Coast and weather reports are now focusing on whether wind shifts could bring radioactive material to the United States. Many nations are suspending their nuclear operations.
Years will be needed to fully learn the lessons of this tragedy. But one is already clear: the need for an international agreement on what specific data must be released and when.
Japan's reactors may not melt down, but the lack of credible information about them is causing a global meltdown about nuclear power.
