{"id":74899,"date":"2016-06-13T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=74899"},"modified":"2016-06-10T14:50:21","modified_gmt":"2016-06-10T13:50:21","slug":"fukushima-worse-than-a-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/06\/fukushima-worse-than-a-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Fukushima: Worse Than a Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"TK<\/a>

TK Kurikawa | Shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0Disasters can be cleaned up.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

7 Jun 2016 – <\/em>Naohiro Masuda, TEPCO Chief of Decommissioning at Fukushima Diiachi Nuclear Power Plant, finally publicly \u201cofficially\u201d announced that 600 tons of hot molten core, or corium, are missing (Fukushima Nuclear Plant Operator Says 600 Tons of Melted Fuels is Missing, Epoch Times,<\/em> May 24, 2016).<\/p>\n

Now what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Gregory Jaczko, former head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), it is not likely the fuel will ever be recovered: \u201cNobody really knows where the fuel is at this point, and this fuel is still very radioactive and will be for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big part of the problem is that nobody has experience with a Fukushima-type meltdown, which now appears to be 100% meltdown, possibly burrowed into the ground, but nobody really knows for sure.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next is like a trip into The Twilight Zone.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe absolutely uncontrollable fission of the melted nuclear fuel assemblies continue somewhere under the remains of the station. \u2019It\u2019s important to find it as soon as possible,\u2019 acknowledged Masuda, admitting that Japan does not yet possess the technology to extract the melted uranium fuel,\u201d (600 Tons of Melted Radioactive Fukushima Fuel Still Not Found, Clean-Up Chief Reveals, RT, May 24, 2016).<\/p>\n

Nuclear fission is when atoms split apart into smaller atoms. With nuclear bombs, fission must happen extremely quickly to charge a large explosion whereas, in a nuclear reactor, fission must happen very slowly to make heat, which, in turn, is used to boil water to make steam to turn a turbine to generate electricity.<\/p>\n

Eventually, by rubbing two sticks together, one can boil water, but modern-day society doesn\u2019t have the patience, which means accepting risks leaps and bounds beyond rubbing two sticks together. Welcome to an altered world.<\/p>\n

Even if Masuda\u2019s cleanup crew find the missing 600 tons, which is so highly radioactive that workers cannot even get close enough to inspect the immediate areas, then they need to construct, out-of-midair, the technology to extract it, and then what? It\u2019s guesswork. It\u2019s what modern-day society has been reduced to, guesswork. Toss out rubbing two sticks together and build monstrous behemoths for billions to boil water, and when it goes wrong, guess what to do next. What\u2019s wrong with this picture? Well, to start with, nobody knows what to do when all hell breaks loose.<\/p>\n

They do not have the technology to extract it!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1986, Russian teams of workers found the melted corium of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant\u2019s reactor core in the facility\u2019s lowest level. Whilst \u201cfrying 30 workers\u201d along the way, they contained it just enough to prevent burrowing into the ground, maybe.<\/p>\n

During containment work at Chernobyl, a makeshift robotic camera managed to actually photograph the monster, the melted core, nicknamed \u201cthe Elephant\u2019s Foot.\u201d Thirty years after the fact, the \u201cElephant\u2019s Foot\u201d is still lethal.<\/p>\n

By way of comparing\/contrasting Chernobyl and Fukushima, extraordinarily high radiation zaps and destroys robots at first sight when sent into Fukushima\u2019s containment vessels. It\u2019s kinda like the Daleks in Doctor Who.<\/p>\n

Whereas, thirty years after the fact, Chernobyl seems to have found a solution to the elephant\u2019s foot menace to society, but as for Fukushima, they must first locate 600 tons of hot stuff. That may be an impossible task. Then what?<\/p>\n

\u201cThirty years after the Chernobyl nuclear accident, there\u2019s still a significant threat of radiation from the crumbling remains of Reactor 4. But an innovative, \u20ac1.5 billion super-structure is being built to prevent further releases, giving an elegant engineering solution to one of the ugliest disasters known to man,\u201d Claire Corkhill, PhD, University of Sheffield, New Tomb Will Make Chernobyl Site Safe for 100 Years, Phys.Org, April 22, 2016.<\/p>\n

As it happens, the older collapsing sarcophagus for Chernobyl is being replaced by a brand new enormous steel frame: \u201cThanks to the sarcophagus, up to 80% of the original radioactive material left after the meltdown remains in the reactor. If it were to collapse, some of the melted core, a lava-like material called corium, could be ejected into the surrounding area in a dust cloud, as a mixture of highly radioactive vapour and tiny particles blown in the wind. The key substances in this mixture are iodine-131, which has been linked to thyroid cancer, and cesium-137, which can be absorbed into the body, with effects ranging from radiation sickness to death depending on the quantity inhaled or ingested,\u201d Ibid<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Elephant\u2019s Foot could be the most dangerous piece of waste in the world,\u201d (Chernobyl\u2019s Hot Mess, \u201cthe Elephant\u2019s Foot,\u201d is Still Lethal, Nautilus, Science Connect, Dec. 4, 2013). It\u2019s a highly charged radioactive massive hunk of goo that will not die or waste away. This could be a Doctor Who script, par excellence! Therein exist the soft underbelly, the vulnerability, and the risks of using nuclear power to boil water, or alternatively, the sun and wind could be used. They\u2019re not radioactive and still much faster than rubbing two sticks together.<\/p>\n

Fukushima is three times (3x) Chernobyl, maybe more; however, in Fukushima\u2019s case there\u2019s a distinct possibility that its white-hot sizzling corium has already started burrowing into Earth. Thereafter, let your imagination run wild because nobody has any idea of how that ends, if ever!<\/p>\n

But, Einstein knew. Here\u2019s a famous Einstein quote: \u201cThe unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophes.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re finally there!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gregory Jackzo, former head of the NRC, ponders the security of nuclear power: \u201cYou have to now accept that in all nuclear power plants, wherever they are in the world \u2026 that you can have this kind of a very catastrophic accident, and you can release a significant amount of radiation and have a decade long cleanup effort on your hands\u201d (Epoch Times).<\/p>\n

Looking ahead a few years, the question remains: Where will the sizzling white-hot melted corium be when the Tokyo Olympics arrive in 2020?<\/p>\n

Nobody knows!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Still, Prime Minister Abe told the Olympic selection committee that Fukushima was \u201cunder control.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis debate has dogged him since his Sept. 7 speech to the International Olympic Committee, when he said the nuclear disaster is \u201cunder control.\u201d The next day, Tokyo won hosting rights for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games,\u201d (Tsuyoshi Inajjma and Yuriy Humber, Abe Olympic Speech On Fukushima Contradicts Nuclear Plant Design, Bloomberg, Oct. 23, 2013).<\/p>\n

\u201cFrench authorities are investigating payments worth around $2m to a company linked to the son of former world athletics chief Lamine Diack over alleged connections to Japan\u2019s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games,\u201d (Tokyo Olympics Bid Questioned as Prosecutors Probe $2M Payouts, The Financial Times, May 12, 2016).<\/p>\n

Japan won the right to host the 2020 Olympics with a bid to spend $5 billion, which is suspiciously small, especially in an historical context. For the record, rival Istanbul\u2019s bid was almost $20 billion, a much more realistic commitment for such a momentous worldly event.<\/p>\n

Thusly, with mucho \u201cballs-in-the-air,\u201d one has to wonder if PM Abe\u2019s infamous secrecy law will click into play, in other words, is there any way it can impede investigations? After all, the law allows any Japanese politician to put an offender behind bars for 10 years for breaking state secrets, which are (very embarrassingly) whatever the accuser claims to be \u201csecretive.\u201d After all, prima facie, between Fukushima and the Olympics, there could be a lot of secretive stuff going on behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s state secrecy law Act on the Protection of Specially Designated Secrets (SDS) Act No. 108 of 2013 passed on the heels of the Fukushima meltdown, is very similar to Japan\u2019s harsh Public Peace and Order Controls of WWII (a real doozy). According to Act No. 108, the \u201cact of leaking itself\u201d is bad enough for prosecution, regardless of what, how, or why. Absolutely, if someone \u201cleaks,\u201d they\u2019re going to \u201cthe can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susumu Murakoshi, president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations dissents: \u201cThe law should be abolished because it jeopardizes democracy and the people\u2019s right to know,\u201d Abe\u2019s Secrets Law Undermines Japan\u2019s Democracy, The Japan Times, Dec. 13, 2014.<\/p>\n

The Japan Times needs to fact-check the definition of democracy.<\/p>\n

_________________________________<\/a><\/p>\n

Robert Hunziker <\/em>lives in\u00a0Los Angeles and can be reached at \u00a0roberthunziker@icloud.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 counterpunch.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disasters can be cleaned up. 600 tons of hot molten core, or corium, are missing and it is not likely the fuel will ever be recovered: \u201cNobody really knows where the fuel is at this point, and this fuel is still very radioactive and will be for a long time.\u201d Nobody has experience with a Fukushima-type 100% meltdown, possibly burrowed into the ground, but nobody really knows for sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}