Antinuclear

Review of Richard Broinowski’s new book “Fallout From Fukushima”

New book reveals Fukushima disaster no accident, Green Left , November 1, 2012 By Phil Shannon Fallout From Fukushima By Richard Broinowski Scribe, 2012  The Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan last year was no accident, says Richard Broinowski in Fallout from Fukushima.  Sitting a nuclear reactor on an “active geological fault line where two of the earth’s tectonic plates collide” was courting catastrophe from an earthquake and tsunami like the one that duly hit the Pacific in March last year.

The powerful Japanese nuclear industry, immunised from critical scrutiny by the “cozy ranks of politicians, bureaucrats, academics, corporate players and their media acolytes”, ensured the Fukushima plant was under-prepared for foreseeable risks.

The reactor core meltdowns in Units 1, 2 and 3, and damage to Units 4,
5 and 6, which all released a “toxic stew of radioactive isotopes”,
were therefore no accident.

Before the tsunami swept aside inadequate protective concrete walls
and knocked out the emergency generators, the earthquake had already
caused radiation leaks and critical damage to reactor core cooling
systems.

The desperate attempt to cool the cores by pumping in millions of
litres of seawater was unsuccessful. The freshly irradiated seawater
wound up back in the sea, contaminating fish stocks. Dangerous levels
of radiation were detected as far away as Tokyo.

All of Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors pose the risks of Fukushima. In an
earthquake and tsunami prone country, they share the same “supposedly
quake-resistant design” of Fukushima and human error in complex
technological systems is almost inevitable. Nuclear calamity is the
predictable consequence.

Also predictable was the response to Fukushima by the nuclear
establishment. This featured a denial of meltdown or radiation
release, delays in providing information, suppression of bad news and
downplaying health risks.

When the Japanese Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, eventually cancelled
plans to build an extra 14 reactors and announced a policy to
subsidise renewables (which make up just 1% of Japan’s energy), his
own “apparently progressive” Democratic Party of Japan forced his
resignation.

Kan was replaced by the more nuclear-compliant Yoshihido Noda. The
head-in-sand response may have been the preferred position of
Fukushima’s Tokyo Electric Power Company (the world’s largest energy
company), and its government protectors, but the Japanese people spoke
up.

Huge anti-nuclear rallies forced all Japan’s existing reactors to be
shut down for safety checks. Few have come back online in the face of
strong local opposition.

The building of new reactors has also been suspended in response to
“deep public suspicion and concern” — 80% of Japanese voters support
ending nuclear power.

This is coupled with the financial realities of escalating capital
costs, wary insurance providers, and repair, clean-up and compensation
costs. Compensation alone from Fukushima is estimated at between US$74
billion and $260 billion.

Broinowski sees a future of “terminal decline” for the nuclear
industry in Japan, and an increasingly fragile official pro-nuclear
consensus in the rest of the world. At least some states, such as
Germany, are keen to steal a march on emerging renewable energy
business opportunities.

Broinowski’s solution, however, also depends on “commercial
engagement” with a renewables future rather than the publicly owned
and run renewables enterprise needed to switch from nuclear and fossil
fuels to clean, green energy. Broinowski was a long-time Australian
government diplomat. If some of Broinowski’s book has the measured
tone of a diplomatic briefing, it makes for a very handy pocket
reference guide to the deja vu history of nuclear folly. This includes
the long saga of official denial and myopia about the health dangers
of the nuclear cycle….. http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/52693

November 2, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Audiovisual