U.S. Aircraft Carrier Moved From Yokosuka Port to Avoid Radiation Traces

[jpak]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-24/u-s-aircraft-carrier-moved-from-yokosuka-port-to-avoid-radiation-traces.html

The aircraft carrier USS George Washington was moved this week from its Japanese port to avoid a potentially costly and complex future cleanup to remove traces of radiation, the Navy’s top uniformed official said yesterday.

The carrier did not face an acute, near-term radiation threat that would have forced its departure from Yokosuka, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) south of the crippled Fukushima Dai- Ichi nuclear plant, said Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead.

Rather, Roughead said, he wanted to move the flattop because even residual traces of radiation on a nuclear-powered warship, while not harmful from a health standpoint, could be mistaken as a sign of a shipboard nuclear leak requiring identification and cleanup, he said.

“The fact that somebody could go aboard and detect some trace, I think, injects challenges,” he said in an interview. “When you think of an aircraft carrier that has literally thousands of miles of ventilation ducting in it, you’ve got a significant cleaning issue.

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Last week the Navy also imposed a 100 nm no-fly zone for its aircraft around the Fukushima NPP...

[ReggieVeggie]

1. I'm guessing a fairly major cover-up by the Japanese government?

Or are they reporting the dangers coming from the plant? Do the Japanese people know what's going on?

[kristopher]

3. If that is based on this OP ...

I'd suggest stepping back for a bit. Wouldn't it be a reasonable conclusion that radiation on the ship makes them blind to any potential leak of their own reactor?

The Japanese may or may not be telling everyone the truth (I say not, but don't attribute a malicious motve to it) but the OP doesn't inform the question at all imo.

[ReggieVeggie]

4. I was just wondering how bad it really is

the indication of the ship being moved suggests that even the ship's commander wasn't aware of the severity of the increase in radiation

As to radiation on the ship? Well, I have no idea.

[PearliePoo2]

2. I'm guessing it's more like:

"We never would have guessed....had we known...."
blah blah blah