Antinuclear

Fukushima crisis, real risk of another, and worse nuclear disaster

VIDEO Experts warn of another disaster awaiting at Fukushima  http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3532725.htm   Australian Broadcasting Corporation 7.30 report Broadcast: 25/06/2012 Reporter: Mark Willacy Japanese and US nuclear experts warn that another earthquake hitting Fukushima could spark a disaster worse than Chernobyl.

Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: One more major earthquake in Japan and the
nation could face a nuclear disaster 10 times the scale of Chernobyl.
That’s what experts are telling 7.30.

When Japan was hit last year by a massive earthquake and tsunami, the
world feared nuclear catastrophe.

The nation’s Fukushima nuclear reactors were inside the disaster zone.

We’ve not heard much about them for a while, but the danger certainly
hasn’t passed.

Experts say the situation inside Fukushima reactor number four is
precarious, as North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from
Fukushima….. the spent fuel pool of the Fukushima nuclear plant,
containing enough nuclear fuel to spawn a catastrophe to dwarf
Chernobyl.

In the gloom of this pool, a 1,331 highly radioactive spent nuclear
fuel assemblies each containing dozens of rods.

ROBERT ALVAREZ, INSTITUTE OF POLICY STUDIES: The spent fuel pool
number four at Fukushima, based on my sorta calculations, contains
roughly 10 times more cesium 137 then released by the Chernobyl
accident.

MARK WILLACY: It’s also clear from this footage that the pool is
littered with debris from last year’s disaster.

HIROAKI KOIDE, NUCLEAR ENGINEER (voiceover translation): The nuclear
fuel in that pool is 2.5 times what’s needed in a reactor core. It
contains 5,000 times more cesium than was released by the Hiroshima
bomb and the pool is just hanging there. We don’t know when it could
collapse……
HIROAKI KOIDE (voiceover translation): If there’s a crack in the pool
and water drains out, the fuel rods will be exposed. It will then be
impossible to cool the fuel. So if an accident happens, 10 times more
cesium than has already been released by the Fukushima meltdown will
go into the atmosphere. Depending on which way the wind is blowing,
Tokyo could become uninhabitable……
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3532725.htm

MARK WILLACY: Hiroaki Koide is a senior nuclear reactor engineer at
Japan’s prestigious Kyoto University and one of the experts raising
the alarm.

HIROAKI KOIDE (voiceover translation): As soon as possible, those fuel
rods should be removed. Earthquakes are striking almost every day
around the Fukushima plant, so I’m praying that a big one won’t hit.

MARK WILLACY: This warning is echoed by international nuclear safety
experts, among them, Robert Alvarez, a former advisor to the US
Secretary of Energy.

ROBERT ALVAREZ: You have a very, very large concentration of
radioactivity where the only thing that keeps that radioactivity from
being released through a catastrophic fire is a pool of water. That
pool is 100 feet off the ground in a structurally damaged building in
a high-risk earthquake zone. I mean, what more you can be worried
about?…..
MARK WILLACY: Ever since the meltdowns, TEPCO has maintained a veil of
secrecy over what’s happening at Fukushima. But one man has managed to
penetrate it. Tomohiko Suzuki is a rarity in Japanese journalism: a
reporter prepared to put his health on the line to get to the truth.

TOMOHIKO SUZUKI, JOURNALIST (voiceover translation): When I went
undercover as a worker at the Fukushima plant, I wore protection gear,
but over my sleeve I wore this watch, which has a secret camera
inside.

MARK WILLACY: With his secret camera watch and other hidden devices,
Suzuki recorded life inside the Fukushima plant. Working next to the
reactor four building, he was shocked by what he was told about the
fuel pool 30 metres above him.

TOMOHIKO SUZUKI (voiceover translation): I spoke to a worker who
helped reinforce the reactor four building. He said the spent fuel
pool has vast amounts of heavy water in it and that the steel support
frames were damaged, but he told me that the reinforcement of the pool
was jerry-rigged, so if a typhoon or a tornado hits, it will be
dangerous…..
MISUHEI MURATA, FORMER JAPANESE DIPLOMAT: I call it the sickness of
Japan. First, we hide, then we postpone and then we assume no
responsibility.

MARK WILLACY: Misuhei Murata is a former Japanese ambassador to
Switzerland. He’s brought his fears about the fuel pool to the
attention of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

MISUHEI MURATA: TEPCO and the Government of Japan not only lacks the
ability, but the intention.

MARK WILLACY: So in your opinion if there was a problem with that fuel
pool, it would be the end of Japan?

MISUHEI MURATA: Yes. There is no-one who denies that. … We cannot
sleep peacefully.

MARK WILLACY: So who should be the people of Fukushima back? A
collection of nuclear experts, journalists and concerned activists
struggling to be heard, or TEPCO with its history of cover-ups and
incompetence?

VOX POP (voiceover translation): I do not believe TEPCO. I do not feel
safe at all. Radiation levels are still high.

June 26, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Audiovisual