After the devastating quake rocked the rads out of Fukushima’s reactors, the Japanese government took over eight hours to deliver an atmospheric map showing where radiation was likely to spread – an action that should have been immediate.
Failing to deliver the data in the midst of the crisis – where hours are a long, long time – likely held up local governments’ inability to form an evacuation plan and get residents the hell out of harm’s radioactive way. The Japanese government blames a broken communications line on the lapse, but really – they were relying on a single cable as the sole means of transferring data within their own country? Even if this is true, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. [Kyodo News]