Fukushima nuclear plant “under control”- who believes this?

Seemingly, all TEPCO has been doing for the last two and a half years is storing contaminated water in tanks, with no real solution to the problem reached. What the Japanese government is doing is ensuring people in Japan and around the world that Japanese water and food are safe to eat and drink, and that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster will not affect the 2020 Toyko Olympics. One thing neither Japan nor TEPCO are doing is keeping Japanese citizens or the international community promptly and accurately informed and up-to-date of the contaminated water leaks.

Japanese ministers miss the point at Fukushima Daiichi http://enformable.com/2013/09/japanese-ministers-miss-point-fukushima-daiichi/ Lucas W Hixson 17 Sept 13, Earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires, that the “effects from the contaminated water have been perfectly blocked within the (artificial) bay” of the wrecked nuclear complex, and said “the situation is under control.” A statement which was questioned strongly by the Japanese media, as experts have continually noted that contaminated water is continually flowing into the Pacific Ocean.

This week, two Japanese officials told reporters that the situation at Fukushima Daiichi is under control, despite obvious signs that the crisis is only worsening. On-site, contaminated water continues to build up, outside the plant the contaminated debris does the same.

Japan’s industry minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, told reporters that the situation at Fukushima Daiichi is under control, and that individual events, like leaks of contaminated water from storage tanks, should not be confused with the big picture. It appears that Motegi himself is not aware of the big picture; that three reactor cores have fully melted down and have not been located since, there is no current strategy to bring the disaster to a close – and work now is only focused on a feed and bleed strategy to keep the molten cores cool, that the unprecedented amounts of accumulated contaminated water will continue to increase for the foreseeable future, that the nuclear disaster is having a crippling effect on the nuclear industry workforce, and that there is no end in sight to any of these problems.

Japan’s science and technology policy minister, Ichita Yamamoto, told attendees of the IAEA’s general conference that contaminated water inside the Fukushima Daiichi seaport is not polluting ocean water outside the port, a claim which contradicts experts in Japan who have said that some 50% of the water in the port mixes with the ocean each day. Yamamoto also did not mention the likely leak from Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2, which experts think is quickly releasing contaminated water directly into the ocean.