nuclear-news

Fukushima nuclear plant is NOT stable

NYTimes: Fukushima plant unstable says official, concern another accident can’t be prevented — “Vulnerable… Very dangerous” http://enenews.com/nytimes-fukushima-plant-unstable-says-official-concern-another-accident-cant-be-prevented-vulnerable-very-dangerous  April 11th, 2013
 Title: Fukushima Nuclear Plant Is Still Unstable, Japanese Official Says
Source: New York Times
Author:  HIROKO TABUCHI
Date: April 10, 2013

[…] a series of recent mishaps — including a blackout set off by a dead rat and the discovery of leaks of thousands of gallons of radioactive water — have underscored just how vulnerable the plant remains.

Increasingly, experts are arguing that [Tepco] cannot be trusted to lead what is expected to be decades of cleanup and the decommissioning of the plant’s reactors without putting the public, and the environment, at risk. […]

“It’s become obvious that Tepco is not at all capable of leading the cleanup. It just doesn’t have the expertise, and because Fukushima Daiichi is never going to generate electricity again, every yen it spends on the decommissioning is thrown away. That creates an incentive to cut corners, which is very dangerous. The government needs to step in, take charge and assemble experts and technology from around the world to handle the decommissioning instead.” -Muneo Morokuzu, a nuclear safety expert at the Tokyo University Graduate School of Public Policy

“The Fukushima Daiichi plant remains in an unstable condition, and there is concern that we cannot prevent another accident.” -Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority
See also: Tepco: “Losing faith” in leaking Fukushima tanks — But we don’t have anywhere else to put the radioactive water

April 12, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013