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After 9 years & billions of dollars spent attempting to cleanup the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, is Japan’s new Prime Minister throwing in the towel? https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishandegnarain/2020/10/18/japan-to-release-radioactive-fukishima-water-into-ocean/
The Fukushima disaster could have been prevented. During construction, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) reduced the height of the coastal cliffs where it built the plant, underestimated potential tsunami heights, & ignored scientists’ warnings https://news.usc.edu/86362/fukushima-disaster-was-preventable-new-study-finds/
In addition to TEPCO’s failure, the Fukushima plant used General Electric (GE) ‘Mark 1’ reactors. In 1975, three GE engineers “resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design was flawed https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fukushima-mark-nuclear-reactor-design-caused-ge-scientist/story?id=13141287
Both the Japanese & US govts have attempted to prevent full public disclosure of the extent of the Fukushima disaster. 5 days after the tsunami John P. Holdren (Assistant to the President for Science and Technology & Director) disseminated an internal memo https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/emailid/10502
“Water levels in the spent-fuel storage pools at Fukushima Dai-ichi Units 1,2, and 3 are now reported to be falling. At Unit 4 total loss of water from the spent-fuel pool has been reported . It is being reported that the zirconium cladding of the fuel is already burning (cont.)”
“to an extent unknown) in the spent-fuel pools at both Units 3 and 4. (Note that the jargon "zirc interaction" in the NRC update means the stuff is burning.) High radiation levels are making it extremely difficult for safety workers to deal with the situation (cont.)”
“My interpretation: Burning of the zirconium cladding on fuel exposed to the air (as in these spent-fuel pools in buildings that lost their integrity due to hydrogen explosions) will lead to large releases of fission products to the atmosphere. Complete destruction of the (cont)”
“fuel & the release of a large fraction of its contained radioactivity would be expected to occur over a period of several hours -- say, between 3 and 12 -- once large-scale burning has commenced. These releases would not be attenuated to the extent expected for releases (cont.)”
“from a reactor core after containment failure; they could approach or even exceed the quantity of radioactivity released at Chernobyl. This is because each spent-fuel pool contains the equivalent of one or more complete reactor cores. While the short half-life component (cont.)”
“of the radioactivity that was present when the fuel was in the reactor has decayed away after the fuel has been in the spent-fuel pool for some weeks, the longer-half-life radioactivity...is virtually all still there.”
Compare Holdren’s frank internal discussion with public press reports at the time & you’ll see quite a difference. Japan concealed Fukushima information behind its official “State Secrets” law https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-secrecy-idUSBRE99N1EC20131025 while the US hid behind layers of bureaucracy.
One diligent soul managed to compile a series of Freedom of Information Act requests sent to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). A brief summary of what they found (cont.) https://hatrickpenry.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/something-wicked-this-way-comes-the-story-of-plume-gate-the-worlds-largest-provable-cover-up-updated-on1.pdf
“The damage to the Fukushima Daiichi facility was much greater and the ability to respond was much more difficult than we have been led to believe. There is a reference to a 46 foot tsunami, the height of which was measured by TEPCO on the walls of Unit’s 1 and 2. (cont.)”
“There is evidence Spent Fuel Pool (SFP) #4 and #3 went dry, experienced a ‘zirc fire’ and were a 'melt on the floor'. The NRC & Naval Reactors were concerned if the melted fuel in the spent fuel pools would reach ablation temperature and burn through concrete and rebar (cont.)”
“into the torus below. At times, dose rates at the facility were lethal or near lethal and as such workers were, at times, unable and unwilling to make repairs. There is talk of 450-600 REM/hr between Unit’s 2 and 3 and MOX sludge causing access problems. (cont.)”
“Remote control bulldozers were used to push rubble into piles to reduce the dose rates. Engineers and workers were unable to follow protocol as there was/is no known procedure that will rectify a prolonged station blackout due to saltwater inundation of switch boards, (cont.)”
“circuitry, electrical components, diesel generators etc. from a tsunami. The force of the wave dislodged and damaged the diesel fuel tanks that held the fuel that would have powered back-up generators and when the diesel generators themselves were not damaged (cont.)”
“from being submerged, the control panels that operated them were. The water-cannons and helicopter water drops were marginally effective and did little to cut dose rates. There is discussion of shipping a series of pumps made by Bechtel from Perth, Australia to Japan (cont.)”
“in an effort to cool the reactors and spent fuel pools with seawater. At least one pumping unit was delivered to Japan on March 22nd, 2011 but in the end the Bechtel pumps were NOT used. DOD foot the bill on the Bechtel pumps which means John Q. Taxpayer actually (cont.)”
“covered the cost...approximately 9.6 billion dollars. It was at least two weeks before power began to be restored to any significant level in what can only be described as a slow, painstaking effort. There is proof of multiple radioactive plumes being emitted from (cont.)”
“the Fukushima facility...some well into the month of April, 2011. There is discussion that NOAA tracked a 19 mile radioactive cloud along the Japanese coast. There are TEPCO maps of measured (not modeled) plumes, some of which are over 60 kilometers long.”
Fukushima radiation contaminated the entire Pacific Ocean in less than 5 years https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-10-02/fukushima-radiation-has-contaminated-entire-pacific-ocean-and-its-going-get-worse
As of 2013 the Fukushima site was leaking 300 tons of radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean every day. TEPCO, desperate for a containment solution, appealed to both the Japanese government and to the international scientific community http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-fukushima-pm-idUSBRE97601K20130807
Source of the leak is inaccessible to both humans and robots http://www.sciencealert.com/the-robots-sent-into-fukushima-have-died
The technology to overcome this dilemma does not yet exist https://dunrenard.wordpress.com/2018/01/28/the-corium-of-reactor-2-of-fukushima-daiichi-is-clearly-visible/
As of 2016, the location of the ‘corium’ was still unknown https://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2016/s4417214.htm
The technology to overcome this dilemma does not yet exist https://dunrenard.wordpress.com/2018/01/28/the-corium-of-reactor-2-of-fukushima-daiichi-is-clearly-visible/
As of 2016, the location of the ‘corium’ was still unknown https://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2016/s4417214.htm
Even though the most recent proposed release of radioactive water from Fukushima has been treated, it still contains radioactive tritium. It can form tritiated water inside the body if ingested or inhaled & can damage cells https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/tritium
Unlike Chernobyl (being sealed in a layer of concrete), TEPCO plans to dismantle & decommission its reactors at Fukushima. The process would take 30-40 years, but to succeed the location of the melted ‘corium’ MUST BE KNOWN. This diagram shows the daunting task ahead
