nuclear-news

Revelations of the un-safety of Japan’s nuclear reactors

”All the samples would be considered nuclear waste if found here in the US.”   – Arnie Gundersen on soil samples taken recently from parks, playgrounds and rooftop gardens throughout Tokyo.

Fukushma the Japanese Chernobyl’…a year later and politics still ‘trump’ safety…UK Progressive,  JEANINE MOLLOF | APRIL 29, 2012  The Japanese Prime Minister Declares Nuclear Plant Safe… Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda declared that nuclear units 3 & 4 at the Ohi Nuclear Plant were safe for operation.
Prime Minister Noda based this declaration on ‘stress tests’ which were nothing more than computer simulations.  The computer simulations merely estimate any given reactor’s ability to withstand large earthquakes and/or tsunamis, allegedly like last year’s Fukushima disaster.  No other studies, expert testimony or other considerations were mentioned.  Unfortunately, for Japan—and the world—Noda couldn’t be more wrong.

Several weeks ago, noted nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen visited Tokyo for the express purpose of collecting soil samples.  The results were damning.  To quote Gundersen…

”… I was in Tokyo and when I was in Tokyo, I took some samples.   Now,
I did not look for the highest radiation spot. I just went around with
five plastic bags and when I found an area, I just scooped up some
dirt and put it in a bag.   One of those samples was from a crack in
the sidewalk.  Another one of those samples was from a children’s
playground that had been previously decontaminated.   Another sample
had come from some moss on the side of the road.   Another sample came
from the roof of an office building that I was at.   And the last
sample was right across the street from the main judicial center in
downtown Tokyo.   I brought those samples back, declared them through
Customs, and sent them to the lab.   And the lab determined that ALL
of them would be qualified as radioactive waste here in the United
States and would have to be shipped to Texas to be disposed of.”
And yet Japanese Prime Minister Noda is fervently lobbying to restart
nuclear reactors, fearing power losses in the hot summer.  It is
reported that without the restart of the Ohi nuclear plant and some
unnamed others, the plant operator—Kansai Electric—would only generate
some 80% of previous electric output.

Reports Leaking Citing 14 Reactors in Similar Condition as Fukushima..
In the meantime, various reports are leaking out of Japan including a
video on Asahi TV which shows mutated plants in Tokyo, and a report on
ENE News citing a former Fukushima Daiichi Reactor Operator claiming
that they routinely falsified data and rewrote operations reports.

Ironically, sources as conservative as Bloomberg News have cited
similar safety concerns.  A piece by Jason Clenfield which ran on
March 22, 2011, detailed how  engineer  Mitsuhiko Tanaka helped
cover-up a ‘manufacturing defect’ in Fukushima Daiichi No. 4 reactor
while employed by Hitachi Ltd. in 1974.  Tanaka has dubbed Reactor #4
as a ‘time bomb,’ and has pleaded with government officials repeatedly
only to be pushed aside and ignored.  Yuichi Izumisawa, a Hitachi
spokesman explained how the company conferred with Tanaka back in
1988, concluding no further safety concern existed.  Izumisawa was
recently quoted stating that…”We have not revised our view since
then.”…..
The fatal flaw in reactor #4.
According to Tanaka, the reactor pressure vessel had warped walls
which caused the vessel to sag, resulting in a height and weight
differentiation of more than 34 millimeters.  During the last step in
a manufacturing process at the Babcock-Hitachi foundry in Kure City, a
deadly mistake was made.  Braces which had to be placed inside the
reactor pressure vessel during a blast furnace firing were absent.
It’s unclear whether the braces collapsed or were forgotten entirely.
The omission of these braces produced a reactor pressure vessel with
warped walls.

While politicians may mock or belittle the importance of ’34
millimeters’—that miniscule difference is a vital safety concern.  34
millimeters can mean the difference between an intact reactor or– a
chain reaction bomb.   Nuclear regulations mandated that the vessel be
scrapped.  Had the warped reactor walls been discovered; the
replacement cost of the vessel would have bankrupted the company.
Tanaka claimed that his boss …”asked him to reshape the vessel so that
no one would know it had ever been damaged.”  Tanaka further claimed
that workers at the plant covered the damaged vessel with a sheet.  It
is noted that the same ‘protective covering’ of a white sheet is still
employed at Fukushima in 2012.
Tanaka’s fix involved using pumpjacks to ‘pop out’ the warped areas on
the walls.  The company was happy because the end result looked like
nothing had ever been damaged or compromised.  There is no record of
stress tests to determine ongoing viability of these compromised
vessel walls on its own structural integrity, yet this same reactor
pressure vessel is the sole defense protecting Fukushima’s No. 4
reactor.

‘Luckily’ reactor #4 was shut for maintenance on 11 March 2011—the day
the earthquake and subsequent tsunami hit.    Tanaka claims, …”I could
be the father of a Japanese Chernobyl.”
http://www.ukprogressive.co.uk/fukushima%E2%80%A6-the-%E2%80%98japanese-chernobyl%E2%80%99%E2%80%A6a-year-later-and-politics-still-%E2%80%98trump%E2%80%99-safety%E2%80%A6/article18462.html

April 30, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, Reference, safety