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Fukushima Falling Apart … Because Plant Operator Has No Incentive to Spend Money to Fix It
After visiting Fukushima a year ago, Senator Ron Wyden warned that the situation was worse than reported … and urged Japan to accept international help to stabilize dangerous spent fuel pools.
A year ago, an international coalition of nuclear scientists and non-profit groups called on the U.N. to coordinate a multi-national effort to stabilize the fuel pools. And see this.
A year ago, former U.N. adviser Akio Matsumura – whose praises have been sung by Mikhail Gorbachev, U.S. Ambassadors Stephen Bosworth and Glenn Olds, and former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and Goldman Sachs co-chair John C. Whitehead – noted:
The current Japanese government has not yet mentioned the looming disaster, ostensibly to not incite panic in the public. Nevertheless, action must be taken quickly. *** We believe an independent, international team of structural engineers and other advisers must be assembled and deployed immediately.
Yesterday – after Fukushima reactor operator Tepco’s recklessness and nickel-and-diming cheapness in dealing with the post-accident response caused new releases of radioactivity – the New York Times reported:
Increasingly, experts are arguing that the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, cannot be trusted to lead what is expected to be decades of cleanup and the decommissioning of the plant’s reactors without putting the public, and the environment, at risk.
***
“The Fukushima Daiichi plant remains in an unstable condition, and there is concern that we cannot prevent another accident,” Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, said at a news conference.
***
“No wonder the water is leaking,” said Hideo Komine, a professor in civil engineering at Ibaraki University, just south of Fukushima. He said that the outer protective lining should have been hundreds of times thicker.
***
Muneo Morokuzu, a nuclear safety expert at the Tokyo University Graduate School of Public Policy, said that the plant required a more permanent solution that would reduce the flood of contaminated water into the plant in the first place, and that Tepco was simply unable to manage the situation. “It’s become obvious that Tepco is not at all capable of leading the cleanup,” he said. “It just doesn’t have the expertise, and because Fukushima Daiichi is never going to generate electricity again, every yen it spends on the decommissioning is thrown away.”
“That creates an incentive to cut corners, which is very dangerous,” he said. “The government needs to step in, take charge and assemble experts and technology from around the world to handle the decommissioning instead.”
This is just like BP’s massive efforts to hide the extent and damage from the oil spill – even though their approach led to greater oil pollution – in order to avoid costs. (And the big banks’ cover up of the extent and damage from criminal fraud on the U.S. economy.)
AP provides additional details:
A makeshift system of pipes, tanks and power cables meant to carry cooling water into the melted reactors and spent fuel pools inside shattered buildings remains highly vulnerable, Nuclear Regulation Authority chairman Shunichi Tanaka acknowledged Wednesday.
***
The problems have raised doubts about whether the plant can stay intact through a decommissioning process that could take 40 years, prompting officials to compile risk-reduction measures and revise decommissioning plans.
***
Just over the past three weeks, there have been at least eight accidents or problems at the plant, the nuclear watchdog said.
***
Experts suspect the radioactive water has been leaking since early in the crisis, citing high contamination in fish caught in waters just off the plant.
***
“The nuclear crisis is far from over,” the nationwide Mainichi newspaper said in a recent editorial. “There is a limit to what the patchwork operation can do on a jury-rigged system.”
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NEWS FLASH!
"Heard much about Fukushima lately? You know, the disaster that spread deadly contamination across Japan and spelt the end for the nuclear industry.
You should have, because recent authoritative reports have reached a remarkable conclusion about a supposedly "deadly" disaster. No one died, nor is likely to die, according to the most comprehensive assessments since the Fukushima nuclear plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011.
The accident competed for media space with the deaths of nearly 20,000 people in the magnitude 9.0 quake – 1000 times worse than the Christchurch quake – and tsunami, which wholly or partly destroyed more than a million buildings.
The nuclear workers were the living dead, we were told; hundreds of thousands would die if the plant exploded; even if that didn't happen, affected areas would be uninhabitable and residents' health would suffer for generations.
Instead, two independent international reports conclude that radiative material released from Fukushima's four damaged reactors, three of which melted down, has had negligible health impacts."
'Nuff said. End of THIS "we're all gonna die" story.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/comment/japans-radiation-disaster-toll-none-dead-none-sick-20130604-2nomz.html#ixzz2VMPMc6yZDavid Lange NZ Prime minister at the Oxford debate 1985
http://m.youtube.com/index?&desktop_uri=%2F#/watch?v=OeHTziiFVx0
If not for Helen Caldicott's tireless work for many years NZ would not now be Nuclear free. It was her tireless energy and sharing of knowledge that helped Kiwis to vote for a Nuclear free NZ http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=BCvCMc-XTSI&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBC... Helen on Fukushima
MSM is still only drip feeding us. Anyone who is able please support this person. http://fukushima-diary.com/
As my recent rant indicated, I'm somewhat dissatisfied with the situation in Fukushima. But I recognize and appreciate GW's work, and I want to contribute a little more information. Namely the log of the high-speed-recorder in Fukushima Daichi, showing the first hour of the accident. I know that this is not interesting for most of you, but a few could use it, so I'll post this, just in case someone wants to know:
Go to: http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/index10-j.html
The site will be in japanese. Doesn't matter. Look at the pdfs at point 3. They got cryptic, japanese names, but hovering over the first entry with the mouse should show: http://www.tepco.co.jp/nu/fukushima-np/plant-data/f1_3_Keihou1.pdf
These are the mentioned data, they are partly in english.
I know, that these dataset is old. But it shows many details, that are still of interest today. I think it can do no harm, to provide these additional information, even if it may be no news to most.
I'm a great double posting zombie.
How big would the NYT headline font have to be if the truth were ever printed? Maybe that's the reason they don't report this shit.
The thing about Fukushima is that it is NOT fixable ... ever.
Chernobyl was one reactor and has been at least partly fixed, but Fukushima is six reactors and not one of them is in anything like "controlled shutdown".
I have followed this probable global extinction event from nearly day one, e.g. via ENEnews, and I can say with certainty that nothing has been, nor can ever be done to mitigate what is, in effect, a constantly spewing "nuclear volcano".
The movie "On the Beach" was based in the possibility of nuclear war in the N Hemisphere eventually depopulating our entire planet (still a possibility) ... but who would have thunk that the "peaceful atom" (a slogan of the 1950s) would achieve the same results as atomic warfare.
Actually I did have an inkling some sixty years ago, during the building of the nuclear reactor at Dungeness in England, but WTF ... too late now globally, e.g. even if no other nuclear reactor ever went wrong, there is NO way of disposing of the waste products.
This reminds me of the Asimov novel Robots and Empire, where a deliberate act to gradually make the earth's crust radioactive over a hundreds years forced the earthlings that had become too comfortable on their planet to colonize the galaxy.
A shame that we had to frontrun our technology by a few centuries...
At least we could explore our solar system. Many wonders to discover out there. That would be doable. Only one problem: If that happens, crewed spaceflight ought to become "the source of all things", and that position is already occupied by a ghastly military-industrial-complex.
I had to upvote you because of "On the Beach": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mxvx9gQ8k0
Speaking of movies about atomic warfare, I'd also like to mention the 1986 movie "When the Wind Blows": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090315/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
you didnt make this reactor ....... we did !
TEPCO sure is putting out a lot of info on the latest water leak problems:
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/
Mainichi Daily News and TEPCO press releases were my two best sources of info on Fukushima two years ago.
http://mainichi.jp/english/english/
It is called regression to the mean. And no matter how much you do not want to believe in measurable intelligence you still have to live with the mathematical certainty of regression towards the mean unless you actitvely work to counteract the effect. Why do you think cruise lines cannot operate their ships? And no one knows how to cleanup the F reactors. Not only are those people not available, but the people running the organizations do not know how to identify those who could help them.
You are sadly right. The people running modern corporations simply do not know how to actually acheive things. Nor do they know how to identify those who do. The modern corporation rewards and promotes managers who can cut costs, make clever deals and manipulate influence.
Fukushima affects the entire human race. If the Japanese are too rigid and bound by convention to be able to deal with it then we need to step in no matter if they agree or not. We love to invade countries on various trumped up excuses. Maybe we should re-invade Japan in order to seal off Fukushima and save the health of humanity.
The jungle will reclaim it.
If you have sex with a highly radioactive Japanese woman, does your penis eventually fall off?
@getting old sucks...apparently it does
Nice number 1!
They should bring in Corzine as a consultant...
Thanks GW. I enjoy the articles and links. You always stimulate thought.
WTF are you even talking about?
Alot of 'jew' references appearing in this forum. I do believe that distinctions should be made between Jews, Israelis and Zionists. These are not mutually inclusive terms. There is a helluvalot (the majority) of Israelis and Jews who are not Zionists. Similarly, there are quite a few gentiles who are Zionists (Cheneys, Bush,Clintons, Geitners and most US politicians). Zionists are very powerful and dangerous scum. Jews and Israelis not. Ultraorthodox jews?...a fucking pain in the fucking arse...bigoted, racist pricks...just like fundamental Christians and Muslims. In an intolerant hell may they all burn.
...nice weather here in Auckland today
Number 1 is in the house!
LOL
HUH?
Go get help!
Maybe a name change is in order.
From TEPCO to......
COPIB
Couldn't Organize Piss-up In Brewery
Forget eating Alaska salmon anymore. Luckily I have a few boxes of these precious fish from Pre-Fuki, radiation-free days....
The last thing I need is leukemia or thyroid cancer...too expensive.... remember....
I'm a Cheap bastard !!
BTW, George, excellent journalism on your part.
any BC salmon is radiated too..I have cans of 2011 BF..Before Fooca..
I'm trying to get my head around this and my brain is spinning. Never has there been a time in human history where the entire world leadership put their heads in the sand. Just looking at the USA, right after the disaster, we decided that there wouldn't be any atmospheric nuclear contagion, so why look for it. We decided that the ocean was large enough to dilute the nuclear fallout. We tested tuna and found them all to be contaminated so decided not to test them any more. Milk in Hawaii found contaminated, lasted for one headline and POOF!, it's gone. Following ENE News, Colorado radiation readings are consistantly 3 to 6 times normal backround radiation measured by volunteers.
Are you eating fish? Red Lobster, Bumble Bee, and every seafood company should be bankrupted by now save the Great Pretenders, the world leadership. Eating large leaf vegies from Califoria? Better start looking for So. American produce for now till it spreads down there. It will eventually. Going on a cruise in the Pacific? That ship makes it's own water. Even if you bring some to drink, it's used for cooking, washing etc. I can go on and on.
The bottom line is that this event is uncontrolable, like have 4 burning suns that can't be extiguished or contained. The world leadership knows this and like cowards, put's their heads in the sand even though they know that in twenty years or sooner, they will be killing their own children, and grandchildren, and great grand children, and so on if anyone survives.
What is the world leadership afraid of? Instant collaspe of the food industry. Total collapse of the nuclear industry. GE would be bust instantly. Having to explain why they were too stupid, or better said, too corrupt, to acknowledge the extremity of the problem sooner, even though there's not much anyone can do. Do you guys know that the NRC testified before congress on this? Do you know what they said? They said the technology to solve this hasn't been developed yet and don't know when or if it ever will be.
I could give two shits about myself as I'll die from something else before this contamination gets me but I look at my young grandchildren and know they're doomed.
Obama, know your killing your own children? It's different this time for TPTB. Nowhere to run or hide.
At least try to do something!
Just as Chernobyl bankrupted the Soviet Union, Fukushima is bankrupting Japan.
Biggest difference is that the Soviets knew what they were doing (except for hinky coast-down experiment where operators violated tech specs and turned off multiple safety systems). And, Chernobyl happened in the middle of nowhere with a big pulse of the release being lofted 2 km in the steam explosion from the reactivity excursion in a positive-void-coefficient graphite-moderated dual-purpose power/production reactor just like the Hanford N reactor shut down circa 1990.
Fukushima is much much worse than Chernobyl, and Japan is already destroyed ... even though the rate of release into Pacific Ocean could increase dramatically if structures simply continues to deteriorate, or if Japanese CONTINUE doing STUPID-IDIOT THINGS while trying to stabilise it. Japan has unlimited liability to anyone in the world who is harmed by Fukushima releases--which is one reason FDA is not testing our food for radiation and EPA is not testing our air and water--IGNORING MULTIPLE LAWS. Just as Lyndon Johnson recalled the fighter jets scrambled to defend the USS Liberty from Israel because he "didn't want to embarass an ally" we have the same situation where the US doesn't want to embarass Japan:Hitachi/Fujitsu--those Japanese conglomerates bought the US commercial reactor businesses of both GE and Westinghouse. We're all just cannon fodder and farm animals for the people who own and control us.
I think that the safest bet to profit from the ongoing collapse of the world is to be long December corn, because it's priced so cheap based on USDA projections of a record crop size and severe weather typically causes three price spikes during the growing season, even before we noticed global climate change. If ZCK3 tests $5.00 i'm all in. This just might be the year we see $10.00 corn.
I'm very sad thinking about the children who are inheriting the world we destroyed and human beings will eventually be shed from Gaia as it shakes off and kills the harmful parasites that we are.
GE's behind all the mis-info. They created the plant. It could be fixed if we had a leader. Instead, we have a fool who put Imelt in some sort of phony Jobs Commission. That says it all.
Nailed it!
If I was a dinosaur watching an incoming comet around 65 million years ago, in super slowmo, I think I'd have felt like I do now.
Here's the EPA's idea of a proper response:
The acting EPA director on Friday signed a revised version of the EPA’s Protective Action Guide for radiological incidents, which critics say radically relaxes the safety guidelines agencies follow in the wake of a nuclear-reactor meltdown, dirty-bomb attack, or other unexpected release of radiation.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2013/04/10/epa-draft-stirs-fears-of-radically-relaxed-radiation-guidelines/
They aren't even pretending to care anymore, we are surplus to requirement, they want a huge chunk of us gone.
Unless they have a secret cure for radiation related conditions, or plan to live in filtered bunkers for the next 100,000 years, they're gone too.
Maybe that's the reason they act so selfishly inhumane...THEY'RE NOT HUMAN! They may thrive on radiation or be immune like cockroaches. That would explain their lack of care or of course it could be that they just love their money more than their own lives since everyone knows they'll get nicer digs in the unquestionable heaven that awaits them since they donated far more than the average middle class peon to charity (which unquestionably proves they're good people). I wouldn't be surprised if most of them were this far gone as the world crumbles from their economic terrorism and these bastards cry about normalized tax increases.
Reptilians!
+ 1 million
These assholes don't know that there's no escape. They will fund space exploration looking for a new earth, but the more they look, they find that we are really alone as far as human life is concerned. When earth goes, billions of years will pass before another a "just right condition" for life "a living cell" is accommodated. The universe will still be here, but we won't and the universe couldn't care less.
When earth goes, billions of years will pass before another a "just right condition" for life "a living cell" is accommodated.
"Another" implies it's happened before. There is no credible evidence that it has.
I hope Bruce is reading this and putting the brakes on his daughter flying over there for honeymoon.
Two days ago, the snow in the mid-west was reading 101.5 CPM.
Can you say, hot snow!
The human race doesn't deserve to survive.
It's just a shame about all the innocent (species) bystanders.
FUCK IT.
Occupy Our Minds: To Empower Ourselves, We Need to Plug the 7 Holes In Our Heads
I listen to the conversations of the people I work with and am always amazed by the lack of awareness of anything other than TV shows and what they'e spent (wasted?) their money on.
Don't get me wrong, I actually like most of them. I just find the average person's ability to think is minimal. That's what the edumakation system does to most people, unfortunately.
I'm pretty sure there's no hope.
Ignorance is bliss. Think about how much more you could enjoy life if you weren't aware of reality. Knowing is painful as it incites anger and stress on a daily basis but it does allow you to prepare for the (w)reckoning which should give you a chance to live a little better than all the people who choose ignorant bliss when the shtf. Unfortunately, if TPTB keep _ucking up the world with these major environmental disasters of incompetence and thrift, the ignorant bastards who cared about nothing but their own entertainment and quickly die from lack of preparation will likely get the better end of the deal once again. The sad thing is this is a never win situation for the intelligent activists who first tried to prevent, then try to prepare only to finally tread through the shit and aftermath of those ignorant bastards that didn't care. It's a sad mad world where Justice is hard to find.
While you are in some ways correct, please note that:
I do fight, even knowing it's hopless.
I have worked on a few websites with a good friend of mine regarding taxation and banking in Canada - you may find them interesting. Based on much research by me and my friend's PhD thesis.
www.paperednotes.com
www.g20rule.com
www.contaging.com
I use any resonable opportunity to educate people regarding the financial system we suffer under.
I have no debt, no TV. I cycle instead of driving.
I think I fight harder than most.
First off hat's off to Senator Ron Wyden for doing what has been called "90% of life" namely "showing up." second off GW I will have no argument with you about the absolute NEED for this so called "story" (a nuclear meltdown has a media cycle?) to be spotlighted like a prisoner escape. I think the Real GW would approve MIGHTILY. But will someone finally "say the word" namely..."We the People are being poisoned"? This whole fear of "fear itself" really is the hallmark of our Age. At some point people will be confronted by the fact that "we should have been scared to death two years ago."
I was.
Still am.