Confusion might be the best way to describe the response to the nuclear power plant crisis at Fukushima, Japan, that has been played out in slow motion over the past two years. As a general rule, mainstream media appears to have downplayed the potential dangers from the crisis at the power plant hit by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. Recent stories by reporters allowed to visit the nuclear plant, including one by the BBC, appear more anecdotal than offering any real insight into a nuclear clean-up process that could drag on for as many as four decades.
But could the situation actually be worse than even some alarmists are claiming?
A recent video report by a BBC correspondent showed the precautions visitors and workers have to make in entering Building 4, the main focus of attention, pointing to the pool where the nuclear fuel rods are stored, and the crane that will be used to extract them and place them in a safer depository. Care is clearly being taken to protect workers and prepare for the beginning of a process, due to start this month, to extract the fuel rods.
During the visit, the correspondent drove past two buildings where the radiation readings are completely off the charts and impossible to enter. The authorities have said nothing about these buildings. (See The Hidden Story? – below)
Focus on Building 4
In the report, little was said about the danger of actually removing the rods in Building 4. If one breaks or is dropped, or exposed to the air for too long, it could set off a chain reaction. But this was not mentioned in the report.
Many people have been weighing in on the dangers posed by the sluggish and seemingly inefficient way TEPCO has been handling the process. According to Dr Helen Caldicott, who has devoted over 25 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of the nuclear age, and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop environmental destruction.
Dr. Caldicott has said that the amount of radioactivity within the rods themselves, now in the elevated pool in Building 4 is about 14,000 times the amount of the Hiroshima bomb. “We’re dealing with diabolical energy. The fuel rods need to be removed because if there’s another earthquake the building will go down and all those fuel rods would be exposed to the air and they will burn. That will release 10 times more radiation cesium than it was released at Chernobyl and pollute much of Japan and the Northern hemisphere. If there is another earthquake and Building 4 collapses which contains the cooling pool with fresh fuel the Area around Fukushima would have to be evacuated, meaning that the continuing operation of cooling down of Building #5 and #3 would stop, leading to a crisis of global scale and a threat for life on earth for thousands of years.”
The Olympics and saving face
Meanwhile, the way TEPCO and the Japanese government, the latter keen to keep the upcoming Olympics, is treating the crisis reeks of cover-up and downplay. They appear to be out of their depth but showing little inclination to invite in foreign engineers to deal with the problem. There is little evidence that conveys confidence that the clean-up will be handled well. In addition to the sluggish response, many of the companies bringing in largely unskilled contract workers are under the control of the yakuza, Japan’s crime syndicate.
In the meantime, a rash of international media stories and warnings indicate radioactive waste continues to leak from the plant into the sea on a daily basis, with concerns about the death of marine life in the Pacific and claims of higher levels of radiation being found on the western shores of North America.
It is hard to know whether the dangers are being over-hyped or underplayed. Is Fukushima a ticking time bomb that could destroy life in the entire Northern hemisphere for thousands of years, as some experts say, or a localized domestic spill problem that will take decades to clear up?
Need for international engineers
A growing chorus of alarmed experts and citizens from around the world are calling for international action.
In one op-ed piece on CNN, entitled, “It’s a crime what is happening at Fukushima,”
the authors warn of the dangers of taking up nuclear power as a way to reduce fossil fuel use and therefore reduce global emissions that could worsen climate change.
According to by Linda Pentz Gunter and Kevin Kamps, writing in a story for CNN entitled,
“Don’t trade global warming for nuclear meltdowns,” the situation at Fukushima remains perilous and could still become orders of magnitude worse. A technology that has the capacity to poison human resources and render vast areas unfit for habitation for decades, even centuries, cannot be endorsed by environmentalists and runs contrary to the best interests of humanity.
The piece was written in light of a documentary that has just shown on CNN, entitled, “Pandora’s Promise,” which argues that nuclear power is the answer to the world’s fossil fuel powered energy needs.
The Hidden Story?
But what are we not being told about the crisis at Fukushima? The situation in Building 4 is enough of a worry, but what of other buildings that get little or no mention. Let’s look carefully at that downplayed BBC report – Fukushima’s fuel rod removal plan.
The video report appears reassuring, with the correspondent even claiming he was probably subject to less radiation exposure on the trip to the plant and in Building 4 than normal radiation levels one might encounter as a passenger on a London-Tokyo flight.
But he adds the following in his story:
“As our bus left reactor four and drove along the sea front, I pointed my new [radiation] monitor out of the window towards reactor building three. Suddenly the needle started to spike – 1,000 counts per second, then 2,000, 3,000, finally it went off the scale.
There, outside the bus, just a few dozen meters away is the real dead zone, a place where it is still far too dangerous for anyone to go. No human has been inside reactor three since the disaster. To do so would be suicide. No-one knows when it will be possible to go in.
When I asked the same experts how long it would be until reactors one, two and three could be dismantled, they shook their heads. When I asked them where they thought the melted reactor cores were, they shook their heads again.
Tokyo Electric Power Company was happy to show us reactor four, but please do not ask what they intend to do with reactors one, two and three.”
All the focus is on Building 4. But the real story – and the real threat – could be posed by buildings one, two and three, which are inaccessible and may contain damaged and deteriorating fuel rods, a situation that could be worsened by a future earthquake.
Is this a ticking time-bomb? Or can we rely on the assurances of the Japanese government that everything is under control?
