And there were two other NHK stories I wanted to talk about in more detail:

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/...129646408.html

At least 61 people in Kenya’s capital were killed Monday after a gasoline pipeline exploded.

Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi told VOA the explosion was one of the worst accidents ever in Kenya’s energy sector.
He explained that trouble began when pressure caused a gasoline pipeline to break a valve. Fuel then spilled into an open sewer in the informal settlement of Mukuru wa Njenga.
It started with a simple leak today. Did you even hear about it?

And yet the explosion in the low level nuclear waste reprocessing plant in France was all over the news, including in Japan.

Here's NHK's take. It has churned out 5 stories on this industrial accident (I'm listing from most recent back to first):

France probes explosion at nuclear-related site
Authorities in France say radiation levels around the nuclear waste processing facility where an explosion occurred are normal. They add that the furnace did not explode.

The explosion happened on Monday in Marcoule, southern France, at a building housing a facility to melt low-level radioactive waste. One worker was killed and 4 others were injured in the accident.

According to the facility, the blast was not in the furnace, as initially presumed, but near the furnace.

The French Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety says radiation readings in the air around the facility are the same as before the accident. No evacuation order has been issued for nearby residents.
The country's nuclear regulatory authority has sent an emergency response team to the site to investigate the cause of the accident.

The ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet has gone to the site to assure residents that there is no nuclear leak.

Observers say the French government is trying to reassure the public. There has been growing concern over nuclear power stations in France following the accident in March at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 07:15 +0900 (JST)
For one thing, there is no nuclear plant at this site, nor is there a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant. It's irrelevant to whether French people should be nervous or not about nuclear power. It's about whether they want metal smelters around.

Previous article:

French institute examines radioactive samples
A French nuclear institute says metals containing 67,000 becquerels of radioactive substances were being burned at a nuclear waste treatment site near Nimes in southern France when an explosion occurred there on Monday.

The Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety says that the radioactive level is so low that there is no possibility of anything hazardous leaking into the environment.

It says the building housing the furnace has not been damaged, and there is no need for residents around the plant to evacuate.

But the institute says as wind was blowing from north to south at the time of the accident, it is now examining radioactive levels at several locations in the south of the compound.

The institute says the results will be available within a few hours.

It also says a fire broke out immediately after the explosion, but has been extinguished.

The institute monitored the impact of highly radioactive substances on the sea, after the explosion at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 05:55 +0900 (JST)
The INSR is the group advocating a 1 mSv per year exposure threshold. If they say nothing happened, nothing happened.

And another NHK article

Explosion occurs at French nuclear facility
An explosion has occurred at a nuclear waste processing plant in the suburb of Nimes in southern France. The country's nuclear safety body says no radioactive leaks have been detected.

The blast in Marcoule took place shortly before noon on Monday.

One person reportedly died and 4 others were injured.

The nuclear agency says the explosion occurred in an oven used to melt metallic waste that contains very little radioactivity.

The plant is operated by a subsidiary of the EDF power company. A spokesperson says a fire broke out after the explosion, but it has since been brought under control.

Local media say no evacuation orders have been issued to residents living near the facility.

The nuclear safety authorities are investigating how the blast occurred.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has set up a task force. It is asking the French authorities to provide details of the accident in order to ascertain the situation.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 05:55 +0900 (JST)
And here's an article from NHK that is just plain WRONG.

Explosion occurs at nuclear facility in Marcoule
The nuclear waste processing facility where an explosion occurred on Monday is part of a complex of nuclear facilities in Marcoule, southern France.

One of the facilities at the complex processes spent nuclear fuel to produce plutonium-uranium mixed oxide or MOX fuel.

The MOX fuel is sold for use in nuclear power stations in Japan.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 05:55 +0900 (JST)
and the initial report

French envoy says no radiation leak from blast

A French envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog says there is no radioactive leakage after an explosion at a nuclear waste processing facility in southern France.

France's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Florence Mangin, confirmed that there was an explosion but said it was not a nuclear accident and no radiation has leaked.

Mangin is attending an IAEA board meeting in Vienna, Austria.

She said the French government will send an emergency response team to the site to gather further information.

France's interior ministry says the explosion was an industrial accident, not a terrorist attack.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 05:55 +0900 (JST)

So the initial report was correct--what the heck was NHK doing with the other 4 reports? NHK reported nothing about the 61 people who died in a gasoline pipeline explosion in Nairobi.

This kind of over-sensationalized, crap reporting has become typical in anything with the word nuclear in the report. Heck, I expect to read something about explosive fallout from the nuclear family some time very soon.


And here's Atomic Power Review by will davis, the most reliable blogger about Fukushima. The coverage is making him crazy, even more crazy than I am about it, particularly coverage from Russia & Azerbaijan:

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Rabid Media - and the Marcoule incident
From time to time, I like to do the sort of thing you're about to see me do. I always thank Fintan Dunne for putting me on to this. Let's go!

First, look at the headline of the following article:

"What You Need to Know About the Nuclear Explosion In France."
http://www.theatlantic.com/technolog...france/244913/

There was no nuclear explosion in France. There was an industrial accident involving a furnace used to melt contaminated metal parts together into ingots for disposal. While this could involve, say, a fossil fuel explosion there isn't even a nuclear reactor in the facility in question.. and even THEN, there could not be a nuclear explosion because reactors cannot explode like nuclear weapons. So this has to be one of the most highly exaggerated headlines yet.

Here is just a horrible headline, and an even worse article:

France aims to limit fallout from nuclear accident.
http://en.trend.az/regions/world/europe/1930583.html

Where shall I begin?

-Clever use of the word "fallout" hints at radioactive fallout, but they really mean public reaction to the event.

-Note the use of the different serious scary words such as "blast" and "blown up."

-See the implication that the press has learned from anti-nuclear Fukushima press hack media guidelines vis a vis age of sites in this article when it mentions that this is one of the oldest nuclear sites in France. This is one of their new hot button things - age.

-Note how the article ends with "hasn't learned the lessons of Fukushima." Yes, well, lessons learned from one of the most massive natural disasters in modern times and how that relates to GE-Toshiba-Hitachi boiling water reactors in Mk I containment buildings really has little to do with an explosion and fire in and around a furnace that melts steel.

"Blast rocks nuclear plant in France."
http://rt.com/news/rocks-nuclear-plant-france-337/

It's not a nuclear plant. It's a waste processing facility. Can't we get a handle on the differences here, media? Please? What, do I need to issue you all a media guide? Nuclear energy 101, maybe I'll call it. By the way - don't even bother reading the article actually linked above because it's almost perfect in its incorrectness from front to back, top to bottom. It's a masterpiece of total inaccuracy.

"Jitters after nuclear accident in France."
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/09/12/56071356.html

The Voice of Russia here makes it clear that they, and perhaps many others in Russia wish that something worse than Chernobyl would happen so that the spotlight is off them, and so that there's a new yardstick of "bad." Think I'm kidding? Read the last paragraph of this article twice slowly and you'll begin to realize I'm not.

I could go on and on like this, but I'd like you to compare all the articles you'll see in the blog roll on this site, and this site's own articles on the subject, with the various major media articles you have seen above on this post. The comparison - and the intent to scare and misinform by the major media - could not be more clear.

4:35 PM Eastern Monday September 12, 2011

Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if the Russian slant on this has more to do with promoting Russian fossil fuels- Gazprom and so forth, as the Russians are busily building and selling nuclear power plants in their own country and elsewhere.