Fukushima Nuclear Disaster News - Debunking Arnie Gundersen

It's really getting tiring debunking everything that clowns like Arnie Gundersen say about Fukushima. It doesn't matter how many facts or data that I link to or how much I try to fact check what this guy says, people still write really stupid (and childishly rude) stuff to me and challenge me on it. 


Of course, I can tell the rude stuff comes from ill-educated hysterical Americans. It's pretty obvious.


What's even more tiring is getting mail from fools who actually believe that things are out of control. It really reminds me of the early days of the Global Warming idiocy. People were foaming at the mouth believing that too because they believed the crap they were told. What was their rationale?


1) It was a government cover up and conspiracy 
2) "They" were lying to us


Why do people think this way?


3) Most people are illogical and cannot have an original thought if it were the last thing they ever did


It's a victory for the public education system that it churns out so many people with such a poor level of education. 


I don't really mind being challenged on what's written here, but let's stick to the points, if we can, shall we? The lunatic fringe writing stuff to me like what I received yesterday was so totally out of whack that I deleted his comments. (Note: I do enjoy every one's comments and appreciate that they take the time to write them, but please do read the rules on commenting before you write. It is foolish to take ten minutes writing something that gets immediately deleted when you could read the rules in two seconds and make sure that doesn't happen).


Some of these guys actually write comments like this:


"Mike, you are full of sh*t... Care to debate me?"


Hmm.... What an intelligent, polite and marvelous argument this guy puts forth. What a fantastic invitation to debate the points. I can tell, by the quality of his writing, it would be like debating Neanderthal man. I don't know how I can counter such an excellently structured argument... 


Perhaps by hitting the table with a crude wooden bat and saying, "Korg no like!"...


Could he possibly mean that he wants to, "debate me on the point of the contents of my body?" If so, no. I do not... If he means that - judging by the excellent logic of his argument shown in his comment - should I debate him on the same level of childish insults as he does by, say, calling his mother various unsavory names? Then, no to that one too. 


I'm sure that his mother is a wonderful woman. Most moms are like that.


So, without further ado, here's another article debunking Gundersen. I hope it will be the last, but, alas, suspect it won't. First up, let's be fair. I will show you both anti-atomic power (Gundersen's comments) and "pro"-nuclear power comments. You be the judge.


From Atomic Insights: 

Arnie Gundersen has been making money by spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about nuclear energy for more than a decade. His career has received a measurable boost since March 11, when a large earthquake and powerful tsunami successfully peeled off most of the many layers of protection at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station.

Ever since that day, Gundersen has been giving scary interviews in a variety of media outlets that include a number of dire predictions. He claimed that the spent fuel pool for unit 4 had gone dry and that he had the video to prove it. That claim remains available on his web site, so he is apparently standing by his early evaluation despite all evidence that contradicts his claim.

(snip) 

He has been making the rounds of the advertiser supported media recently with stories about the dangers of “hot particles” that are so tiny they cannot be picked up by normal radiation detectors. (Note: Radiation can be measured at extremely low levels, far below the levels that can cause human health effects. There is a reason why doctors inject small amounts radioactive materials into their patients as tracers to assist them in diagnosing organ function – those tracers make bodily systems visible without endangering the patient. If the hot particles are so tiny and dispersed that they cannot be detected, they are nothing to worry about.)

You can read more about Gundersen here at Atomic Insights.

Of course, I also blasted Gundersen for these same ridiculous remarks on the very blog in "Wind Patterns and Rainy Season in Japan" where I derailed his ignorant and completely false claims that "the wind was turning and now blowing radiation towards Tokyo." I also dismantled his absurd claims of "anecdotal evidence" of people having a metallic taste in their mouths was proof of Iodine in the air as a byproduct of radiation in "Metallic Tastes in Mouths Proves Nuclear Disaster! Or Does it?"

Finally, and as an aside, one other reader complained that I bashed Gundersen for his foolish claims of radioactive air filters in cars. The reader claimed that he searched for third-party evidence of this claim by Gundersen and could find nothing. This reader then somehow concluded that this fact was proof that I was making up evidence against Gundersen and trying to discredit him (well, that's what he said. Yeah, I know. The logic is quite convuluted...) But I don't want to keep railing on the educational system of the USA. In that post about car air filters I even showed the results of a search in Japanese for what Gundersen was claiming and found nothing excepting links to his absurd claims. See it here in "Radioactive Air Filters in Cars?" 

For today here's more about what Gundersen claimed that is totally disproven by facts on the ground. Gundersen claimed in an article on Al Jazeera:

"So ten to 15 years from now maybe we can say the reactors have been dismantled, and in the meantime you wind up contaminating the water," Gundersen said. 

Is this true? You be the judge. Here's today's news from the Nuclear Energy Institute:

Contaminated Water Levels Beginning to Drop at Fukushima Daiichi

TEPCO is making headway in reducing the volume of contaminated water on site. In the last week, the new water filtration system has treated more than 13,000 tons of water. Recycling the treated water into the plant cooling systems also began last week, and the rate of water accumulation is now being reversed. The company says water levels in the basements of the reactor buildings could drop by more than three feet by next month. About 120,000 tons of water have accumulated in basements at the facility and in storage facilities. 

This seems to quite directly contradict Gundersen's claims, no? 

The article continues:

Also, the company has installed steel plates at the seawater intake structures for Fukushima reactors 1 through 4, closing off a path for leakage of contaminated water from the reactors to the ocean.

So, judging from the news these last two days, here are the facts and the timetable settled so far:

1) Radiation levels at the crippled plants are expected to be within safe limits so that human engineers can reenter the plants on July 17, 2011. That's eight days from today.

2) The contaminated water is being cleaned and contaminated water levels are dropping.

3) Radioactive water leaks have been stopped.

Of course this disaster at Fukushima is bad. But considering the claims of just a few shorts months, even weeks ago, when Gundersen was claiming:

"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind. Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed. You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."

Gundersen likes to use words like "maybe" (see above) and words like "probably." That means that he is just guessing. Also, don't look now, but the reactors were being cooled months ago.

As far as being the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind, I'm sure that is debatable. I'm sure people near the BP oil disaster that has already killed at least eleven men and sickened hundreds, if not thousands, of people; as well as killing wildlife in the hundreds of millions if not more, would strongly disagree with you Gundersen.

So far the death tally from Fukushima nearly four months later: Zero. 

These are facts indelibly etched into history...Care to debate me?

Note: In my next post, I blow this, "Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind" claim to pieces. That claim is pure and total nonsense. How can people be so arrogant and ignorant of history to even entertain such a thought? Read it here.

Latest Disaster News About Fukushima Accident - Media Coverup?

The foaming at the mouth panic and fear mongering about Fukushima is dying down. The peanut gallery is taking their toys and heading home. The reason why you don't hear much about Fukushima is not because there is a coverup, it's because things are predictable and getting under control.


Now, the worst thing that is going to happen is how people from that area will most likely be discriminated against. I received a few excellent comments from some long time Japan expert friends who are quite knowledgable about Japan, her history and society. I'd like to share their wisdom with you.


The first is from my friend Graham Carpenter who writes:  

The big and real damage to Fukushima from this nuclear accident is how Fukushima will now be known as the radioactive prefecture, and its citizens will be discriminated around the country as if they are mutants. Sort of like how Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims were initially treated. And, of course, this is further accelerated with all the doomsday reports and predictions. 

The second is from Michael Di Stacio who runs the Rock Challenge Japan Charity who adds:

Speaking with children in Fukushima recently. Their fear of being "labelled" like lepers if they come to Tokyo is very real. The Mayor of Tsukuba a few months ago fed the ignorance. But me thinks that the past Hiroshima/Nagasaki mentality of stigma will smear Fukushima for some time ... due to an archaic education system and small, uniformed minds - both the products of an infantile media system and self-serving politicians.

THE FORTUNES - YOU'VE GOT YOUR TROUBLES, I'VE GOT MINE

So thanks to all those morons who were scaremongering and claiming doom. As if these people in Fukushima and Tohoku don't have enough problems of their own without having you clowns (who live hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers away) scaring people by writing and talking about BS.


The good news is these jerks are starting to fade away. Thank god for that.


Also, my hate mail is also decreasing.

The last mail I got (along the lines of claiming that I was a paid agent for the nuclear industry) was from a guy who was several weeks late to a party where I was blasting a guy named Arnie Gundersen for scare mongering and stating ridiculous things about Fukushima and the nuclear accident problem in Japan. The last article that I had written bashing Gundersen, entitled, "Radioactive Air Filters in Cars?" was written on June 16th, 2011 about Arnie's nonsense claims of car air filters in Tokyo being found with dangerous levels of "Hot Spot" radiation that will surely kill us all but couldn't be detected with a Geiger counter. That post was penned in mid-June.... 

The anonymous reader finally got around to reading that story (at least three weeks late) and wrote to me yesterday on July 6, 2011. His letter is funny in a conspiratorial sort of way. I laughed. I hope you get a chuckle out of it too. The guy jumps right into it when he comments:

"At this point, calling Gundersen names puts you in good company...every other nuclear official/scientist (all bought off by the industry) that said nuclear containment issues were a zero percent probability."

Ha! Ha! laughable. "Every other nuclear official/scientist"!? Oh really? EVERY!? All of them? This guy sounds just like Gundersen. They're both just like the child who begs mom for a new toy "because everyone has one!" They are also like the rest of these people (like Global warming alarmists, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, etc.) who always say the end of the world is upon us. They make these wild claims and yet fail to back them up with names or links (remember when "they" said that "2,500 of the word's top scientist agree about man-made Global Warming"? Ha!). 

OK, anonymous reader, name one of these "Every other nuclear official/scientist" (who aren't in the pocket of the nuclear industry) please. It's heartening to know that Gundersen stands like the rock of Gibraltar, alone, against the elements of evil.


Guffaw! 

Then, on top of that, he goes and make the even more idiotic claim that these unnamed nuclear official/scientist(s) were "bought off by the industry"? Oh, please.... Got any receipts?

Folks, it is truly embarrassing that our public education system graduates people who write this poorly and have such low critical thinking skills. How in the hell did the west ever win the Cold War? Seriously, this is embarrassing, no?

This argument is pure fiction out of Alice in Wonderland. 

Once again, if a writer can't name names or show links to back up claims, then it's all bullsh*t just like the "anecdotal" crap Gundersen says. Then the writer continues trying to be "cute" or "intelligent" of which he is not either...

"Oooppsy-Doopsy! Granted, a metallic taste in the mouth is NOT scientific."

"Oooppsy- Doopsy!" indeed. I think someone watches way too much American TV sitcoms. People in the real world don't talk this way. They only do on the I Love Lucy Show or Mary Tyler Moore or whatever dribble people watch these days.

"...but if all things remained consistent, and I tasted something "metallic", and I lived in Seattle during the disaster, I'd be at least mildly concerned."

You would be concerned if you "lived in Seattle during the disaster"? Oh man, I know Americans are bad at geography, but this is ridiculous. It's almost 5,000 miles from Tokyo to Seattle! You would be worried about that!? You have a 5,000 times higher chance of dying from coal or oil industry emissions and you don't worry about those, but you'd be worried if you had a metallic taste in your mouth if you lived 5,000 miles away? Seriously, you should never drink the tap water anyway either. The crap in the tap water will probably kill you much sooner than something going on 5,000 miles away.

Dude. You need help. Really.

"Especially given the government's consistent under reporting of the actual radiation releases."

Once again, proof, please. Links?

"Bad mouth him all you want, I suspect you were bad mouthing him BEFORE the accident too."

Wrong! Never heard of the guy before.  

"I guess it becomes an issue of credibility at that point, and the my money is on Gundersen." (sic)

Your money is on Gundersen? Well, you lost. Gundersen, like Michio Kaku (excepting his Saturday night Sci-Fi TV show), is no where to be seen recently. They've lost all credibility and have quietly gone back to hiding under their rocks.

But I am still here. If you bet on guys like me, you won. Here is what is really going on at Fukushima. Trust that this is boring stuff and is never anywhere near as exciting as Gundersen making up nonsense like deadly radiation that will kill you but is undetectable or Michio Kaku saying stuff like "the Yellowstone National Park was a "super volcano" that was going to"wipe out the United States as we know it."

Instead of betting on Micho Kaku or Arnie Gundersen, I'd say it's a better bet to put your money on Uncle Fester from the Addams Family.... At least he is funny.

Uncle Fester gets a charge

But enough of my complaining. Here's what's going on at Fukushima that you need to know.... Actually a lot is going on, but it is not sensational, so you won't hear about it.... 

Fukushima Reactors on Target for Stabilization Next Week (July 17, 2011)

http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/news_images/pdf/ENGNEWS01_1309166580P.pdf

The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has started injecting decontaminated wastewater as a coolant. This is considered an important step to stabilize the damaged reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says it began recycling the water around the reactors on Monday afternoon. The utility has been operating a water treatment system since June 14th and processed about 1,850 tons of radioactive water that had been accumulated at the plant. TEPCO says it will continue injecting 16 tons of water per hour into the No.1, 2 and 3 reactors. 13 tons of this will be the decontaminated water. Workers had been pouring pure water to cool the damaged reactors, but some of this ended up contaminated with radioactive substances and was leaking outside of the reactors. Cooling the reactors without increasing the volume of wastewater is the biggest challenge. With the water circulation in operation, TEPCO has made progress toward achieving its target of stabilizing the reactors by mid-July. 

Get that? Even though guys like Gundersen and many others claimed that it would take decades to get Fukushima under control or that we needed to bomb the reactors from the air with concrete and cover them up, they are on schedule to be stabilized with 10 days of this post.

That doesn't strike me as the end of the world or the apocalypse like some writers were claiming. Does it to you?

Robot Tests Radiation in Fukushima Reactor Building

http://safetyfirst.nei.org/japan/robot-tests-radiation-in-fukushima-reactor-building/

Work is continuing to reduce radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor 3 building. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has used robots to vacuum radioactive debris and place steel sheets on the floor to decrease the potential for radiation exposure. Pending a reduction in radiation levels, workers are scheduled to enter the building housing the reactor on July 17 to begin installing new piping to inject nitrogen gas into the reactor containment vessel. The inert gas will reduce the possibility of a hydrogen explosion in the containment building. The company already is injecting nitrogen into the containments for reactors 1 and 2.

Catch that? "Workers are scheduled to enter the building housing the reactor on July 17th." There is a second article on the same page that talks about how Japan has cleared up the contaminated water issue.

TEPCO said debris may have clogged a hose, temporarily reducing the flow of cooling water into reactor 1 at Fukushima Daiichi by about one-quarter of normal volume. Normally, the cooling system injects 3.7 metric tons of water an hour into the reactors, but the flow was reduced Monday to about 3 metric tons per hour, setting off an alarm. Workers began injecting more water, restoring normal flow in less than an hour. 

The last part of this non-news is "Workers began injecting more water, restoring normal flow in less than an hour." That's "normal" as in "nothing special," "OK," "regular," "not newsworthy." That's why recent news shows things like the Yahoo News top stories for this very moment:

 Let me close up on the top news stories that I highlighted in blue for you:

• Court orders immediate halt to gay military service ban
• CNN cancels Eliot Spitzer's show, promotes Anderson Cooper
• Grizzly bear kills man hiking with wife in Yellowstone
• Jail prepares secret exit for possible Casey Anthony release
• Doctor for A-Rod, Tiger brought unapproved drugs to U.S.
• 24-year-old congressional candidate raises $420,000
• Final Defendant Acquitted in Deutsche Bank Fire- N.Y. Times
• Cops accused of rape also accused of…- New York Dai…
• Hip hop mogul hit with new charges- New York Post

"Court orders immediate halt to gay military service ban"? CNN cancels some TV show? Grizzly bear kills man? Jail prepares secret exit? Wow! That's some news! From reading in between the lines and knowing about the government cover up, one can definitely conclude from these news stories that the world is ending soon and Fukushima is at the cause. (HEAVY SARCASM AGAIN!) 


As Fukushima fades the prophets of doom become more and more discredited.  These clowns who prophesied total disaster and idiocy like "the entire 1/3 of Japan will be depopulated" will go back and crawl into their holes in the ground from whence they came (I've always wanted to use the word, "whence"!)


Of course, they will also conveniently claim that they knew it all along and try to change the subject whenever the BS they said or wrote about Fukushima comes up.


There is a Chinese curse that goes like this: "May you live in interesting times." This year has been very interesting so far. 


I hope it doesn't become more interesting... I don't expect that it will. 

Suicide Blogger

People create blogs because they have something that they want to say. The best bloggers, I think, are those, like musicians, who make their songs for themselves and don't care what others think. 

Tokyo has had some pretty bad sh*t happen 

to it before yet we're still here.

The best bloggers don't blog because they want to get high numbers of readers daily, they write what they want and as they please.


Someday, when I grow up, and am fully able to suppress my inner child, I want to completely say and write what I want. 


The music example above is a good one, I think. The best music comes from people who have a message they want to say to the world and don't care if it sells or not. If it does sell, great. If it doesn't, well, that's too bad. 


The best musicians are not going to change their music to Top 40 style just to get fans. Although, unfortunately, this happens far too often and that's why Pop music sucks so much. 


Of course, like selling many CDs or downloads, for bloggers it is also gratifying to get lots of readers.

2012 is supposed to be the end of the world. 

Hope you have your bags packed. 

When a musician sells out and gives up on his music for sales, then he "sells out" as the term goes. Selling out is a sort of lie. It is not telling the truth and it is doing something purely for money (though I cannot slag off anyone who wants to make money).


Like being truthful to your music, writing the truth on a blog is not a good way to make "sales." What I mean by that is it is not a good way to garner many readers.


Sensationalism sells.


Just look at the news rack at your favorite grocery store upon checkout next time; Gossip and rumor magazines galore. Gossip and rumor and innuendo sell. They are all a form of sensationalism. 


If you want many readers, then writing sensationalism sells. You needn't believe me. Just look at all the media. Sensationalism sells and that is a fact of life.


Newspapers, TV, magazines and the Internet do not sell well when they write boring stuff, like the truth. They need sensationalism to garner readers.


I don't know about you but I don't want the kind of readers who enjoy gossip tabloid publications. I probably couldn't can't get them anyway. I want to write the truth on this blog. That's also why there are no advertisements on this blog either.


Telling the truth is not as good as sensationalism to get readers. Sensationalist nonsense makes waves. Just look at the recent remarks from Keith Harmon Snow, Arnie Gundersen and Michio Kaku. 


These guys make outrageous unfounded claims. People actually listen to them and print up their absurd remarks.


Sensationalism sells.


I blast these clowns out of the water whenever I can. If I wrote more wild nonsense about Fukushima and how people in Japan were being born with extra limbs or animals were deformed or birds were dropping from the skies and joined in with the scare-tactics of the sensationalist crowds, I'd probably have a large increase in readers everyday.


But, as it is, I don't. I want to write the truth and expose the charlatans as best I can. Writing the truth and telling people that no one has died from Fukushima or that rabbits are probably not being born deformed, or that deadly radiation is most probably not being secretly bombed on the Tokyo populace, or that 1/3 of Japan is most likely not to be evacuated and will be quite inhabitable for the next few hundred years at least, thank you, is not exciting stuff. 


If I can, I just want to get the truth out. What I write is not exciting. So my blog readership, as with all truthful blogs on Japan, has declined.

When the truth is that things aren't as bad as all the doomsayers claim, then he truth is boring. The truth being boring doesn't capture the folks who like gossip or sensationalism (or watch American Idol on TV).


The truth doesn't attract so many readers. The truth can be quite boring. Boring will cause a drop in readership. Continued drops in readership may kill off the motivation of a blogger. No motivation, no blog posts. No blog posts, no blog.


Doing something that kills you could be suicidal.


That is what a suicide blogger is.


So, make a choice; are you true to yourself and your "music" or do you want to sell out?  

Notes and Dead Babies From the Fukushima Apocalypse

People really like to exaggerate. People really like to bend the truth to fit their agenda.


Most times that agenda is politically or financially motivated. At other times that agenda is pure and simple narcissism and those who are guilty of this are very many. These people insist upon being right no matter what and no matter how much facts get in the way.


Not being an expert on everything, and with a mass media background and much news experience, I like to stick with the facts... Just the facts.

Shell in Nigeria. For every 1 person who dies from nuclear power, 

900 will die from industrial uses of oil...

 And that doesn't include innocents killed in wars for oil.

The people who have an agenda are easier to understand than the narcissists, money is a great motivator. The motivation of a narcissist is a dark and strange place. 


Many narcissists are so often completely illogical that they write things and fail to recognize to comical nature of their comments.


In my post of June 20, entitled, Return of the Coal Industry and; Massive Health Problems and; Deaths Because of it, I wrote (and linked) to proof that about 3.3 million people a year, every year, die from pollutants from coal and oil based industrial pollutants. I also linked to proof that, per unit of energy, for every one person who has died from nuclear power, 4,000 die from coal industrial uses alone. Throw in oil and the death rate is more than 5,000 times and that doesn't include millions killed in wars for control of that oil. 

Aerial view of massive environmental destruction at Kingston Coal Factory

But the anti-nuclear crowd can't have that. They cannot argue with facts so they come up with nonsense comments. Like this one that was directed to me on Twitter:


"Is it OK for you to portray nuclear risk so low that someday coworkers will lose health, cannot feed their kids cuz they're dead?"


Yes, thank you. If you consider the level of risk so low then that is your value judgement. I portray the facts. That is what I deal in. What do you have to say about the fact that many more people die from coal or oil pollution than nuclear power? 


Also, those people working at Fukushima are not slave workers. This is not ancient Egypt or 18th century slave nations. Those people can quit that job anytime they wish. If they die? Well, have you never heard of life insurance? It was created for just such unforeseen emergencies as, well.... death.


Or is that case different if, as you say they "cannot feed their kids cuz they're dead," due to a much larger killer than nuclear energy; the coal industry and oil industry? Where are your protests about that which is demonstrated and proven as a bigger killer and destroyer of our environment?


By the way, I've noticed that protesting the oil industry is not the trendy flavor of the week... It sure was in the 1970's!


I sure do wish school's would start teaching math and logic as well as critical thinking skills. Our world sure could use it.... 


Sigh...


In a post yesterday, I blasted a writer for calling Fukushima "Japan's nuclear apocalypse."


It is total and complete nonsense to hyper bloviate and call Fukushima a "nuclear apocalypse." That's just total and complete rubbish.


I already explained what the definition of apocalypse is. It is defined as: "imminent destruction of the world and the salvation of the righteous. There's also great or total devastation and doom." 


Get that? Destruction of the world. Doom. Death. Everyone dead. This is not a fender bender.


About the BP Oil spill, some writers were even calling that an apocalyptic event. Total deaths? 11 so far. Many health issues and many more deaths to come most probably. But factually, only 11 so far. You call that apocalypse?


They called Chernobyl "apocalypse" too. So far, the total number of predicted dead from Chernobyl? According to the Chernobyl Forum: 4,000. You call that apocalypse? Very unfortunate for those who died, but hardly what I'd call "apocalypse." 


There's been a litany of events over the past 150 years that have been called apocalypse. The biggest one that comes to mind was World War II. How many people were killed in WWII? Over 60 million. 


They called that one apocalypse too. 60 million is a lot of deaths, but still not the apocalypse. Last I looked humanity was still infesting this planet. 


Words have meanings and when those words are misused, they become tools of propaganda. Intelligent people would be wise to take notice. Chernobyl happened over 25 years ago. They called that apocalypse? Laughable. Did you know that, since Chernobyl, over 17,500,000 people have died in car accidents worldwide? Over 1.2 million people per year and over 3,200 people per day die in car accidents worldwide! I suppose if we are going to be so loose with our terminology I could say that if you want to avoid the apocalypse, then you'll want stay out of your car and off the roads.


The total number of deaths from the Fukushima "Nuclear apocalypse" so far? 


Zero.


And this event at Fukushima some are calling "Japan's nuclear apocalypse"? Pardon me if I do not soil my pants in fear like some people are doing.




NOTE: Finally a big thanks to Michael Distacio of Rock Challenge Japan for reminding me of this great article. It heartens me that Scientific American, a journal of science publication, criticized the same article as I did. The only difference is that while I railed on Arnie Gundersen's nonsense. The Scientific American took other scientists to task:  


"...physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and [sic] may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.” The implication is clear: Radioactive fallout from the plant is spreading across the Pacific in sufficient quantities to imperil the lives of children (and presumably the rest of us as well)."


(snip)


That data is publicly available, and a check reveals that the authors’ statistical claims are critically flawed—if not deliberate mistruths.


Read more here.