Julian Ryall: Japan Suppressed Key Radiation Report.

Japan's science ministry suppressed a report that predicted the release of radiation from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant in March of last year. Four days after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Yoshiaki Takati, the then-science minister, met with senior members of the government and military officials and decided not to release to the public data from the national System for Prediction of Environmental Dose Information (SPEED), according to leaked internal documents. Prediction on the amount of radiation that had already been released from the crippled reactors, as well as further radiation that might escape into the atmosphere "could by no means be released to the public," says the document, according to Kyodo News. Dated March 19, the document predicts that clouds of radioactivity could be released from the plant and spread across northern and central Japan, including Tokyo. In another report released last week, an independent panel revealed that the government was drawing up plans to evacuate the 13 million residents of Tokyo at the same time as it was reassuring the public that there was no reason to worry about the situation at the nuclear facility. The analyses by SPEEDI provided a worst-case scenario in which all four damaged reactors at the plant exploded, triggering explosions at other nearby nuclear facilities. Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, told the investigation that he feared,"If that happens, then Tokyo will be finished." The ministry decided that the SPEEDI data should not be released, but that "more general" information could be prepared for the public. The ministry declined to comment on the report.