Fukushima Nuclear Situation “Deteriorating”
by Richard Wilcox / August 20th, 2012
Were it not for certain nuclear whistle blowers and outside,
independent experts, the public would have to rely on the glib and
technically inaccessible reports from Tokyo Electric Power Company
(Tepco) or the Japanese government. Not that those reports are entirely
without substance, but due to the incomprehensible technical jargon most people
simply throw up their hands and hope for the best.
Luckily, in this day of the internet we can learn a lot about what is going on
thanks to independent researchers and writers. To the extent
that mainstream newspapers have covered the issue responsibly, and there has
been substantive coverage, web sites like “enenews.com”;
“fukushima-diary.com” and “rense.com” have served as information
clearinghouses for mainstream news, academic studies and independent
sources of journalism about the nuclear crisis in Japan.
Given this wide perspective, it is hard to see how any meaningful
progress is being made at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant (FNPP). This is the
conclusion I drew, or anyone with reasonable skills of
observation would have drawn, in April of 2011. The Japanese government
kept telling us that “everything is under control” and there is “no
immediate danger,” all the while, lying through their teeth about the
reactor meltdowns.
Any intelligent layperson who considers the technical
aspects of the disaster will be at a loss as to how the plant operators
will be able to restore the cooling system, which may be badly damaged,
to reactors that themselves may be unrepairable or in various states of
melt-down. If the nuclear fuel in the reactors has melted through to the floor,
what would be the point of setting up a cooling system to a
dysfunctional reactor and a pool of melted fuel? No one in the
government clearly answers these questions nor has the international
community come forth with a possible solution.1
Credit must be given to the hard work of engineers and makeshift
cooling systems were installed, but the state of the reactors is
precarious–highly radioactive–and things have not gone smoothly for
plant operators, Tepco. As for long term solutions, none are presented.
We are supposed to believe that out of this gigantic mess of strewn
rubble and constantly leaking pipes and cooling systems, progress is
being made. At some level there is: as long as the melted fuel keeps
cooling and there are no other major earthquakes, the level of
radioactivity will naturally decrease. But this is a hypothetical,
best-case scenario.
The fuel pools of Units three or four could collapse in another large
earthquake and the highly radioactive fuel rods will not be removed
until 2013 at the earliest– putting the entire world in grave peril
every second that ticks by.
Nuclear expert, Arnie Gundersen, recently stated regarding units 1-3 that they
will “get to the point where they throw
some concrete down on the top of it and come back in 300 years.”
Gundersen thinks this may not even be cleaned up in “500 years!” This
bears repetition:
Fukushima’s Environment Will Not Even be Restored in 500 Years
It’s no wonder nuclear watchdogs have created a special rating system for
Fukushima — putting it in a new category, above Chernobyl, as a no. 8 level
nuclear disaster. Fukushima is a “[m]ulti-source major nuclear accident
requiring international assistance and monitoring.”
A Few Quadrillion Becquerals Here, A Few Quadrillion There…
Meanwhile in Tokyo the Japanese government admits that the
incineration of radioactive debris shipped from the tsunami disaster
zone, from 2011 to 2013, will emit at least 2 billion becquerals of
radiation into the air (according to my calculations).2 Yes, you read that
correctly: TWO BILLION. Compared to the FNPP
disaster that is not much at all, that number could end up being lower,
or even much higher, depending on how much debris is burned, how
radioactive it is, whether the equipment malfunctions, and so on. The
curious point is that the Japanese government admits they are
intentionally emitting radiation into densely populated urban
environments. Nominally, this policy is “to help the people in the
Northeast” (or more likely to help their buddies in the incineration
business). This is sheer insanity, but these are the times we live in,
when even Japanese school children are being given pamphlets “full of
misleading information and half-truths” about the safety of burning radioactive
debris.
The government’s heartfelt concern for the inhabitants of the
northeast is touching. But after 17 months there are still evacuees
living in classrooms partitioned with cardboard and rumors of many people dying
from cancer due to radioactive fallout. This has gone unreported in the
establishment press.
Meanwhile, the situation at the FNPP is still unstable. Tepco has admitted that
a total of about 10 million becquerals per hour of
radioactive cesium was being emitted from the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors as of
June. That is about one-80 millionths of the level that was being
spewed immediately after the accident.
This is down from a peak of thousands of trillions of becquerals at the time of
the reactor explosions3 Measured as quadrillions or as petabecquerals (10 to
the 15th power), the radiation emitted was comparable to Chernobyl, being well
over half if not roughly
equivalent in volume (). While the worst Chernobyl had to offer was
pretty much over once it had blown its lid, Fukushima could still
release vastly greater amounts of harmful radiation due to the nuclear
fuel at the site.
The Unimaginably Unimaginable Danger Of Being (Nuked)
Although the government continues to dismiss the idea that the quakes
themselves were the main cause of the nuclear meltdowns, while
attributing the entire crisis to the “unforeseen” natural phenomenon of
the tidal wave, they admit the quake caused “a 3-square-centimeter
rupture in the piping of the emergency cooling system for the No. 1
reactor.” In addition, they note “the possibility that tremors from the
earthquake created a tiny rupture of 0.3 square centimeter or less,
which later grew larger when the reactor temperature and pressure rose
and radioactive substances leaked from there.”
This is controversial given that independent scientists are not
allowed to inspect the facilities and that witnesses saw the Unit 1
building collapsing before the tsunami arrived.
One worker, a maintenance engineer in his late twenties
who was at the Fukushima complex on March 11, recalls hissing and
leaking pipes. ‘I personally saw pipes that came apart and I assume that there
were many more that had been broken throughout the plant. There’s no doubt that
the earthquake did a lot of damage inside the plant,’ he
said. ‘There were definitely leaking pipes, but we don’t know which
pipes – that has to be investigated. I also saw that part of the wall of the
turbine building for Unit 1 had come away. That crack might have
affected the reactor.’4
In addition to the accumulation of evidence that the earthquake itself was a
primary cause of the meltdowns5 –something the industry does not want to admit
— there are other
inherent flaws in the way nuclear power plants are built and operate.
Gundersen points out that the service pumps failed because they were
flooded by the tidal wave on 311. These pumps send water from the ocean to cool
the back up diesel generators. Gundersen (at
19:00 mark in audio): “There could have been 14 meltdowns and not three. If you
look at the data, there were six units at Fukushima Daiichi
[power station no. 1], there are four at Fukushima Daini [station no.
2], three at Onagawa and one at Tokai. The net affect is that there were 37
diesel generators between those plants. 24 of those diesels were
knocked out by the tsunami. You need the diesels to cool the plant.”
This occurred because at FNPP no. 1 the tsunami flooded the actual
diesel generators, but at the other plants the “tsunami knocked out the
cooling water to the diesels, something called service water. So, Japan
narrowly missed 14 meltdowns and not three because the cooling water to
24 of the 37 diesels was destroyed.”
This bears repetition: JAPAN NARROWLY MISSED 14 NUCLEAR MELTDOWNS
Furthermore, it was sheer luck that there were not eight meltdowns,
for another totally different, random, reason: “The plant manager at
Fukushima Daini, which is six miles away from Daiichi, is quoted as
saying that if the tidal wave happened on a Saturday his four units
would have melted down too. He had a thousand people on site because it
was a Friday, but if it happened on a weekend there would have been a
skeleton crew there. The roads had been destroyed so nobody could have
gotten in to help, and we would have had Fukushima Daiichi and Daini in
meltdown conditions. What happened was almost unimaginably
unimaginable.”
To repeat: had the earthquake happened on a Saturday or Sunday there
would have been eight instead of merely three meltdowns — you can’t make this
stuff up, folks.
The FNPP site is fraught with danger, with constant reports of highly toxic
water leaking from this pipe or that, or this reactor or that. For example,
water in Unit 2 turbine basement was found to have 47 million
becquerals per liter. These sorts of conditions are common. Many
engineers are “highly suspicious” of government assurances that things
are going well. For example,
Takahashi Kei, a former cooling system worker at the
plant now working as a radiation survey volunteer, said the utility
company’s executives are portraying the situation in the best possible
light. ‘There are leaks everywhere, wreckage too. It’s not as simple as
they portray,’ he said.
Japanese nuclear expert, Hiroaki Koide, recently said, “The state of the
reactors is still deteriorating.” Let’s repeat that for the audience at home:
The State of the Reactors Is Still Deteriorating
This hardly sounds like a successful “cold shutdown” and tends to
support Gundersen’s idea that the units 1-3 will have to be entombed in
concrete (if not with Japanese parliament member’s tempura, leftover
from their extravagant taxpayer funded banquets). Recently there is talk from
engineers who have intimate knowledge of the FNPP situation, and
even from the government, that Japan needs to recruit help from the
international community of scientists and engineers.6 Hey! Good idea, let’s
hope they don’t wait too long. After all, this
disaster is not only Japan’s fault, but an international issue from
start to finish.
The lesson yet to be learned is that nuclear power is inherently
dangerous and that the consequences for humanity and the environment
continue to be “unimaginably, unimaginable” in their size.
1. Testimony from Japan: Evolving Coverup of a Nuclear Disaster [↩]
2. My Opinion on Radioactive Disaster Waste; Radiation in Japan: Tokyo
Will Burn Miyagi’s Disaster (and Radioactive) Debris. [↩]
3. Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan;
Scientists: Far more cesium released than previously believed. [↩]
4. Meltdown: What Really Happened at Fukushima? [↩]
5. Report on Nuclear Disaster Holds Key to Reactors’ Fate; July 6,
2012, Pacifica Radio Host Ian Masters and Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen: Lessons
Not Learned From Fukushima Daiichi [↩]
6. Retired Fukushima engineers to seek U.S. assistance; Fukushima Chief
Yoshida on Video: We must bring foreign experts in to help; Japanese government
strengthening international cooperation in nuclear decommissioning and
decontamination. [↩]
Richard Wilcox has a Ph.D. in Environmental
Studies from a social science, holistic perspective. He teaches at a
number of universities in the Tokyo, Japan area. His most recent
interview with Jeff Rense is available. Many of his environmental articles are
archived here. Read other articles by Richard.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2012/08/fukushima-nuclear-situation-deteriorating/
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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