# 5424
As I wrote a week ago in The Fog Of Disaster Reporting - trying to make sense of the situation on the ground during a crisis - based on official announcements and media coverage isn’t an easy task.
We (the public) are at the end of a very long, damaged, and sometimes biased information pipeline.
Officials from TEPCO and the Japan’s government are understandably trying to project an air of confidence during a time of great national tragedy.
They want to instill hope that are making the right decisions and that progress is being made dealing with the multiple crises that have devastated northern Japan since the 9.0 Tohoku earthquake of March 11th.
With hundreds of thousands of people in emergency shelters, more than 20,000 dead or missing, a half dozen damaged and unstable nuclear reactors, and an economy nearly grinding to a halt, however, `legitimate’ good news is exceedingly hard to find.
Which is why government and power company officials tend to stress the silver lining in any progress report or press conference, while some (but certainly not all) segments of the media are focused primarily on worst case scenarios.
And to all that we must add `the fog of disaster’, where incomplete or inaccurate data invariably gets reported.
So what we end up with are confusing, often conflicting media reports, occasionally followed by retractions and `clarifications’ hours later.
All of which makes it very difficult to know what to believe.
Still, there appear to be some glimmers of hope amid the steady stream of bad news. A few headlines from the wires this morning.
First, from NHK World News.
TEPCO says radiation levels continue to decline
Tokyo Electric Power Company says radiation levels around the compound at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are on the decline since water-spraying began in earnest on Saturday afternoon.
The company told reporters that the radiation level at the plant's headquarters building, located some 500 meters northeast of the No. 3 reactor, dropped to 2,625 microsieverts per hour at 8:30 on Sunday morning.
The reading shows a drop of more than 800 microsieverts from 18 hours ago--about the time the water-spraying at the No.3 reactor began.
Sunday, March 20, 2011 11:49 +0900 (JST)
Water temperature drops in fuel rod pools
The water temperature is dropping in the spent fuel rod pools of the No.5 and No.6 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company restored a power generator at the No.6 reactor on Saturday morning.
No gases to be released from No. 3 reactor
The Tokyo Electric Power Company has decided against releasing gases from the overheating No. 3 reactor in an attempt to reduce pressure inside the containment vessel.
TEPCO officials in Fukushima said on Sunday afternoon that pressure within the reactor containment vessel has begun to stabilize, and gases don't need to be released for the time being.
Kyodo News reports on the progress being made on hooking up the external power cables to the cooling pumps at the Fukushima reactor.
Tension remains in Fukushima plant, electricity partially installed
TOKYO, March 20, Kyodo
Japan's quake-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant saw a stable source of electricity finally reach one of its crippled nuclear reactor building Sunday, a key step to move ahead in restoring the reactors cooling functions to avoid the disaster from worsening further.
And lastly Reuters offers this roundup of recent news reports out of the Fukushima crisis.
Snapshot: Japan's nuclear crisis
TOKYO (Reuters) – Following are main developments after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and crippled a nuclear power station, raising the risk of uncontrolled radiation.
As always, Caveat Lector.
