The Japanese government has ordered the operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to pay households evacuated from the area surrounding the complex one million yen each (about $12,000), a top official said Friday morning.

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Japan's Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda said Friday that evacuees from within a 30-kilometer radius around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will receive preliminary compensation soon. He said that Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco, has so far prepared 50 billion yen ($600 million) in cash for preliminary compensation.

It was deserted. It was eerie. There was still food on tables; slippers in the doorways of people’s houses; packs of dogs running around on the streets. Maybe the eeriest thing is in the mud left from the receding tsunami water: footprints everywhere. You could literally see where people had left their homes and left abandoned cars and walked through the mud and left town.

Here are the graphs depicting the evolution of the main parameters of Fukushima NPP1 reactors (unit1 to unit3) since the accident. . Data is taken directly from NISA’s press releases, and can also be retrieved on the following online Excel workbook. The later will always have the latest data, but I’ll add periodic snapshots to this post for those that can’t view it.

But this does not mean Fukushima is now on a par with Chernobyl. Indeed, as Bloomberg notes, the data so far suggests that Fukushima has released only one-tenth as much radioactive material as Chernobyl did.

It's also important to note that the upgrading does not mean that the situation is getting worse. Rather, it is a reassessment of what has already happened. The largest releases of radioactive material occurred in the first days after the earthquake, and the amount released every day has generally been decreasing as various leaks have been plugged.

One way of looking at the drama that has unfolded around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors is as a narrative with one central plot, and a number of sub-plots distracting the attention.

Japan has been asking foreign media to objectively report on the evolving crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday, as reports deemed sensationalist or based on incorrect information have fanned concern and led to import restrictions on Japanese products.

State Foreign Secretary Chiaki Takahashi told a press conference that Tokyo believes some reports by foreign media on the Fukushima crisis were ''excessive'' and has urged the organizations responsible for the stories through Japanese diplomatic missions abroad to correctly and objectively disseminate information.

Ministry officials said some foreign media, including tabloids, emphasized the danger of radioactive materials leaking from the Fukushima nuclear plant by focusing on extreme projections, while erroneously reporting that the plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. has hired homeless people to tackle the ongoing crisis.

Another similarity between Japan's current crisis and the recent financial crisis is that the false risk assessment was largely due to the asymmetric distribution of social welfare and individual cost implied by more effective risk mitigation. Both Lehman Brothers and Tokyo Electric Power Company were able to increase their profits as long as the risk they were willing to accept did not materialize. Their management certainly benefited as long as everything went well. When crisis hit, however, the cost of the meltdown exceeded the companies' equity and thus had to be socialized.

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As in finance, ensuring that the originator of a risk pays the cost seems to be the most sensible approach. If each nuclear-power plant was obliged to insure against the risk that it imposes on society (within and outside the country of its location), it would face the true economic cost of its activities.

This is a joint post, by Chris Goodall of carboncommentary.com and Mark Lynas. We make no apologies for length, as these issues can really only be properly addressed in detail.

How risky is nuclear power? As the Fukushima nuclear crisis continues in Japan, many people and governments are turning away from nuclear power in the belief that it is uniquely dangerous to human health and the environment. The German government has reversed its policy of allowing the oldest nuclear plants to stay open and Italy has reportedly abandoned its efforts to develop new power stations. Beijing has stopped approving applications for nuclear reactors until the consequences of Fukushima become clear, potentially affecting up to 100 planned new stations. The mood towards the nuclear industry is antagonistic and suspicious around the world. We think this reaction is short-sighted and largely irrational.

Our family members have now been allowed to leave the sports stadium in Tamura and check in to a hotel in Aizuwakamatsu. Mamasan sent us a couple of pictures:

Looks nice, but it would of course have been nicer to know how long they are going to stay there, and if and when they will be able to return to their house, and if and when they will be able to find jobs to support themselves. I happened to read an article in the Washington Post this morning about a man, also currently in a shelter in Tamura, who was allowed to make a brief visit to his house very near our family’s house. He brought back soil samples which were determined to be contaminated by radiation, although the article (of course) failed to mention any specifics.

Our family members have now been allowed to leave the sports stadium in Tamura and check in to a hotel in Aizuwakamatsu. Mamasan sent us a couple of pictures:

Looks nice, but it would of course have been nicer to know how long they are going to stay there, and if and when they will be able to return to their house, and if and when they will be able to find jobs to support themselves. I happened to read an article in the Washington Post this morning about a man, also currently in a shelter in Tamura, who was allowed to make a brief visit to his house very near our family’s house. He brought back soil samples which were determined to be contaminated by radiation, although the article (of course) failed to mention any specifics.