Well duh: J-scientists assessing radiation risks took bribes

[Taro Toporific]

Japan scientists assessing radiation risks took travel money from utilities
AP Exclusive by Yuri Kageyama | Dec. 6, 2012----Influential Japanese scientists who help set national radiation exposure limits have for years had trips paid for by the country's nuclear plant operators to attend overseas meetings of the world's top academic group on radiation safety.
The potential conflict-of-interest is revealed in one sentence buried in a 600-page parliamentary investigation into last year's Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant disaster and pointed out to The Associated Press by a medical doctor on the 10-person investigation panel.
Some of these same scientists have consistently given optimistic assessments about the health risks of radiation, interviews with the scientists and government documents show.
More...

j-scientists.jpg

[yanpa]

j-scientists.jpg

And we're wearing work overalls to make it look like we're doing something gritty and hands-on.

[Taro Toporific]

j-scientists.jpg

And we're wearing work overalls to make it look like we're doing something gritty and hands-on.

Actually those are all Cabinet members, but I didn't feel spending a half hour looking for the perfect J-scientists at Fukushima photo.

[yanpa]

My words still apply...

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I thought it was the Thunderbirds...but it turned out they were the blunderbirds.

[yanpa]

[Samurai_Jerk]

I thought it was the Thunderbirds...but it turned out they were the blunderbirds.

Zat's hiralious!

I always thought their motorcycle cops looked like something out of "The Thunderbirds" with their baby blue uniforms and white holsters, boots, gloves, and helmets.

[Russell]

Of course, scientists are all too human, but what I do not buy is the following:

Last month, some members of a panel that sets nuclear plant safety standards acknowledged they received research and other grant money from utility companies and plant manufacturers. The funding is not illegal in Japan.

In the research institute where I work, this kind of conduct is strictly forbidden.

But then again, I guess I chose the wrong field...

[Coligny]

In the research institute where I work PLANET WHERE I DWELL, this kind of conduct is strictly forbidden.

But then again, I guess I chose the wrong field...

FTFY...

[matsuki]

Niwa, a professor at Fukushima Medical University, said that residents need to stay in Fukushima if at all possible, partly because they would face discrimination in marriage elsewhere in Japan from what he said were unfounded fears about radiation and genetic defects.

Setting off such fears are medical checks on the thyroids of Fukushima children that found some nodules or growths that are not cancerous but not normal.

No one knows for sure what this means, but Yoshiharu Yonekura, president of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences and an ICRP member, brushes off the worries and says such abnormalities are common.

The risk is such a non-concern in his mind that he says with a smile: "Low-dose radiation may be even good for you."

TIFJ (this is FUCKED Japan)

Where's SDH? Care to remind us how Japan dealt with (or didn't) the Minamotobyou issue...