Nuclear Boy: Fukushima for kids

The sitch in Japan is not good. In fact, it's very bad.
Japanese officials have warned that Tokyo’s tap water is unfit for babies to drink after radiation from Japan's quake-hit nuclear plant affected the capital's water supply, reported the BBC. Radioactive iodine levels in some areas are twice the recommended safe level and people in Fukushima prefecture, where the nuclear plant is located, have been told not to eat certain vegetables because of contamination worries.
With good reason, the radiation scare has freaked the Japanese people and some have opted to flee the embattled island. In response, a cartoon video has been produced to explain the nuclear crisis in simple terms to Japanese children. The (hopefully soothing) video – which likens radiation to a smelly poo which the diaper (reactor casing) will hopefully 'catch' - has spread like wildfire across the internet. Check it 'ere:



The vid is meant for nippers but its soothing tones have delighted pro-nuclear types.

The video “makes a lot more sense than many of the hysterical reports we have been reading in the last few days,” praised Fraser Nelson at The Spectator’s Coffee House blog. “The figures are not out yet, but it's likely that tens of thousands were killed by the tsunami. Yet the newspapers were all focused on the nuclear meltdown — which injured 15 people. The irony is that, when a tsunami strikes, the local nuclear power station is pretty much the safest place to be.” Nelson regretted that “the opponents of nuclear power have seized on Fukushima to stir up fear about nuclear power … I'd call all this out-and-out hysteria. And why? Three Mile Island killed no one, yet stymied American nuclear development for years. It would be a tragedy if Japan's "nuclear boy" spooked the West into doing the same — because our politicians are making normal (oil and gas) energy a lot more expensive and the renewable energy sources are still an uneconomic scam. It is part of human nature to fear what you can't see (radiation) more than what you can see (mud and water), even if, in Japan's case, the latter is the bigger killer. But energy policy should be decided on the facts alone.”