Documents Suggest Navy Knew USS Reagan Took Major Radiation Hits
From Ring of Fire:
A shocking new report by an American scholar based in Tokyo reveals that Navy officers and the Japanese government communicated about the irradiation of the USS Reagan aircraft carrier, which responded to the Fukushima nuclear crisis in 2011. Sailors on the USS Reagan were among the first to be exposed to the toxic radiation plume while the ship was parked off the coast of Fukushima for tsunami relief, though both the US Navy and the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) claim contamination levels were safe.
The report details conversations that took place between US-based federal government officials, nuclear authorities, US officials in Tokyo, and military staff in the Pacific Command (PACOM). The conversations were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Transcribed conversations show that Navy officers acknowledged that, even 100 miles away from Fukushima, the USS Reagan’s readings were about 30 times greater than a normal air sample.
Serious fallout was also detected on helicopters coming back from relief missions and the crew was exposed to water that entered the ship’s desalinization system. The transcripts contain a discussion of health impacts that could occur within a matter of “10 hours,” noting, “it’s a thyroid dose issue.” Additionally, sailors on the Reagan were exposed to a radioactive snowstorm on the ship that was created when the plume of radioactive steam from the shattered nuclear reactor mixed with freezing air over the Pacific.
You can read the full article here at Ring of Fire.
