nuclear-news

Working at Fukushima nuclear plant likely to be a death sentence?

 Government was likely avoiding the huge task of evacuating major cities like Iwaki and Fukushima.

He also expressed concern for those working to recover the plant. He said: “Working at Fukushima is equivalent to being given an order to die”…..

Fukushima nuclear shutdown: ‘No progress is being made’ ZDNet By Hana Stewart-Smith | December 16, 2011, Summary: The Japanese government says that troubled nuclear plant
Fukushima is under control. But an undercover journalist suggests that no progress is being made towards recovery.

The Japanese government announced publicly today that the troubled Fukushima plant is now under control, having achieved a ‘cold shutdown‘….This is reassuring news for the public after the reactor sprung a leak earlier this month, pouring out an estimated 45 tonnes
of radioactive water, which may have reached the sea….
However, freelance journalist Tomohiko Suzuki, who worked undercover at Fukushima for over a month, disputed this news.      Suzuki spoke to reporters at a Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan conference yesterday, telling a very different story to the one officially given
by the Government.“Absolutely no progress is being made”, he said.

Claiming to have taken pictures of the site via a pinhole camera in
his watch, Suzuki documented “many problems stemming from the shoddy,
rushed work at the power plant”.

He alleges that companies including Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco)
are not adequately caring for workers on the site, claiming that they
are cutting corners in both the repair of the plant and the welfare of
the public.

“(Nuclear) technology experts I’ve spoken to say that there are people
living in areas where no one should be,” he stated. He suggests that
the evacuation zones have not been sufficient and that the
80-kilometer evacuation radius recommended by the U.S. government
would have been “about right.”

He added that the Government was likely avoiding the huge task of
evacuating major cities like Iwaki and Fukushima.

Suzuki’s comments on the major companies involved also suggest a lack
of co-ordination in the clear-up operation.

“Reactor makers Toshiba and Hitachi each have their own technology,
and they don’t talk to each other. Toshiba doesn’t tell Hitachi what
it’s doing, Hitachi doesn’t tell Toshiba what it’s doing”.

He also expressed concern for those working to recover the plant. He
said: “Working at Fukushima is equivalent to being given an order to
die”…..
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/asia/fukushima-nuclear-shutdown-8216no-progress-is-being-made/505

December 19, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | - Fukushima 2011, Japan, spinbuster