Report: Japanese Officials Withheld 'Worst-Case Scenario' Docs - East Idaho News
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Report: Japanese Officials Withheld ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ Docs

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GETTY W 031411 FukushimaNuclearPlantJapan?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1327351984711STR/AFP/Getty Images(TOKYO) — New reports say Japanese officials hid documents that laid out the worst-case scenario during the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year because they didn’t want to scare the public.

Kyodo News reports that government leaders feared the plant’s crippled reactors could release massive quantities of radioactive materials for about a year. That would have forced millions to evacuate – but one Japanese official says “the content was so shocking that we decided to treat it as if it didn’t exist.”

More than 80,000 people in the Fukushima area remain displaced because of radiation concerns.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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