nuclear-news

Japan’s former P.M. insisted on workers staying to prevent Fukushima total meltdown

“If the workers abandoned the plant, all the reactors and fuel rods in the fuel pools would have melted down, causing many times more fall-out than Chernobyl. “I called the TEPCO president and told him a withdrawal was unthinkable “

Ex-PM reveals meltdowns almost crippled Japan  Mark Willacy, ABC South West Radio  March 15, 2012   A year on from the meltdowns at the Fukushima nuclear plant, Japan’s prime minister at the time has told the ABC that the disaster came close to crippling the nation, with the evacuation of tens of millions from Tokyo a real possibility.
In an exclusive interview on ABC’s 7.30, Naoto Kan said the loss of the world’s biggest metropolis would have been like losing a war, leaving Japan without a political and economic capital. He has also confirmed that he confronted the operator TEPCO and rejected its request for its workers to abandon the crippled plant.

One independent investigator credits Mr Kan’s intervention with “saving Japan”.
But documents obtained by the ABC suggest the former prime minister
was not told by his own nuclear regulator that it believed meltdowns
had happened at Fukushima within days of the tsunami hitting the
plant. With fears radioactive plumes from Fukushima could spread all
the way to Tokyo, the apocalyptic scenario of evacuating the mega-city
of Tokyo was the option in front of Mr Kan.
“This was a battle against an invisible enemy,” he said.
“If Japan lost this battle it would cripple the nation, so I thought
it was a battle that we could not retreat from.
“Thirty million people live in Tokyo, so an evacuation would have
crippled the country.
“The damage caused would have been similar to the damage of losing a
war. I think we were lucky.”
In the exclusive interview, Mr Kan revealed that from the very
beginning of the nuclear crisis, he clashed with TEPCO, the operator
of the Fukushima plant.
“My industry minister was told by TEPCO it wanted to pull all its
workers out of the Fukushima plant,” Mr Kan said.
“If the workers abandoned the plant, all the reactors and fuel rods in the fuel pools would have melted down, causing many times more fall-out than Chernobyl. “I called the TEPCO president and told him a withdrawal was unthinkable and he answered that he understood. Then later on March 15
I stormed into TEPCO’s headquarters to tell them my opinion.”…..
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-14/former-japanese-pm-tells-of-fukushima-disaster/3889506/?site=southwestvic

March 15, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, safety