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U.S. sub may have leaked radiation in Japan
International Herald-Tribune ^ | August 2, 2008 | Norimitsu Onishi

Posted on 08/02/2008 9:26:18 AM PDT by Alex Murphy

TOKYO: A U.S. nuclear-powered submarine may have leaked a small amount of radiation as it stopped by Japan in the spring and was then deployed throughout the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese government said Saturday.

The Japanese government said that it was informed Friday by the U.S. Navy that the submarine, the USS Houston, may have discharged an amount of radiation that was too small to be considered harmful.

The chief government spokesman, Nobutaka Machimura, said at a news conference that the radioactive amount - estimated at less than half a microcurie - was too insignificant to "affect the human body or the environment."

The submarine spent a week in March in Sasebo, in western Japan, before cruising to Guam and then Hawaii, where the leak was discovered during an inspection late last month, the Japanese government said.

The announcement came as the Japanese government and U.S. military have been trying to ease public resistance to the stationing in September of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, in Yokokusa, southwest of Tokyo. The scheduled arrival of the George Washington, which will replace the diesel-powered USS Kitty Hawk, has caused protests in Japan, the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons.

The announcement also was an embarrassment for the government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who reshuffled his cabinet Friday in a bid to raise his low approval ratings. Government officials learned of the leak Saturday from television reports even though the U.S. Navy had informed the Japanese Foreign Ministry a day earlier.

"I, too, came to know about it this morning on television," the foreign minister, Masahiko Komura, said at a news conference Saturday.

(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Japan; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: energy; environment; navair; nuclear; radiation; usn; usshouston
Oh no! There goes Tokyo...


1 posted on 08/02/2008 9:26:18 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
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To: Alex Murphy

LOL. Beat me to it!


2 posted on 08/02/2008 9:29:09 AM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Bomb, Bomb. Bomb! Bomb bomb Iran! Bomb. Bomb. Bomb! Bomb bomb Iran!)
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To: magslinger

Oops.


3 posted on 08/02/2008 9:35:42 AM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG 49) "Freedom's Fortress")
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To: Alex Murphy

Eh. We’ve done worse.


4 posted on 08/02/2008 9:36:23 AM PDT by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: RichInOC
Eh. We’ve done worse.

Of course Democrats could spin this story as 'America nukes Japan again'!

5 posted on 08/02/2008 9:41:37 AM PDT by Always Right (Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
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To: Alex Murphy

Japanese nuclear power reactors have killed more people than US nuclear subs


6 posted on 08/02/2008 9:45:27 AM PDT by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: Alex Murphy

Not the first time.


7 posted on 08/02/2008 9:47:20 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (I voted Republican because no Conservatives were running.)
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To: Always Right

We had to do that in response to the bomb that fell on Pearl Harbor.


8 posted on 08/02/2008 9:48:39 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (I voted Republican because no Conservatives were running.)
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To: silverleaf

And spewed more radiation into the environment than any US reactor (almost)

Pot, meet kettle


9 posted on 08/02/2008 9:49:07 AM PDT by ASOC
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To: Alex Murphy

Brace yourselves for a spate of articles attempting to frighten people away from nuclear energy.


10 posted on 08/02/2008 9:58:56 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Barack Obama--the first black Jimmy Carter.)
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To: Alex Murphy
Leaks, eh?


11 posted on 08/02/2008 11:23:19 AM PDT by Mike-o-Matic
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To: Vroomfondel; SC Swamp Fox; Fred Hayek; NY Attitude; P3_Acoustic; Bean Counter; investigateworld; ...
SONOBUOY PING!

Not Navair, but related to the GW story.

Click on pic for past Navair pings.

Post or FReepmail me if you wish to be enlisted in or discharged from the Navair Pinglist.
The only requirement for inclusion in the Navair Pinglist is an interest in Naval Aviation.
This is a medium to low volume pinglist.

12 posted on 08/02/2008 12:19:07 PM PDT by magslinger (A politician who thinks he is above the law is actually beneath contempt.)
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To: Alex Murphy
...diesel-powered USS Kitty Hawk...

Diesel-powered? Yeah, right.

Oil (no resemblence to diesel fuel) fired steam turbines.

13 posted on 08/02/2008 12:33:35 PM PDT by CPOSharky (Blaming CO2 for global warming is like blaming your thermometer for your kid's fever.)
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To: CPOSharky

Someone mentioned ‘nukin’ Japan...
NEVER FORGET...If there were NO Pearl Harbor, chances are pretty good there wouldn’t have been a Hiroshima..

As to referring the ‘Hawk’ as diesel powered, at least the idjuts didn’t call her a ‘battleship’....


14 posted on 08/02/2008 2:03:30 PM PDT by xrmusn
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