LATEST ON NUCLEAR LEAK IN JAPAN

[Anonymous]

Earthquake, fire and nuclear leak in Japan
A
6.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the world’s largest nuclear plant on
Monday, causing a transformer fire. Since then, revelations have been
coming out about spills and leaks at the plant.Initially, plant owner
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said there was no leak of
radioactivity. Then it said there was a small leak of radioactively
contaminated water.  Then the size of the leak turned out to be much
larger than originally reported, and the water was 50 percent more
radioactive than they had first said.  Then it came out that hundreds
of nuclear waste barrels had fallen over, with the lids coming off
dozens of them.  Oh and, it was revealed that cobalt-60 and chromium-51
was released into the atmosphere from an exhaust stack.

Lucky?
It’s
hard to call the residents of Kashiwazaki lucky.  Hundreds were injured
by the quake, at least nine have died and  thousands have been rushed
to emergency shelters.  But, if any of the four working reactors had
lost power to their coolant system, it could have gone much worse. 
From the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center:Even after automatic
shutdown, the fuel in the reactor core is still extremely hot, so it is
necessary to maintain a continual flow of coolant. If it is not
maintained, the fuel could melt, leading to the release of highly
radioactive material into the environment. Under some circumstances, it
could also result in an explosion.Despite the potential seriousness of
this fire, TEPCO failed to announce whether the transformer continued
to operate, or whether the emergency generator started up.According to
Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, TEPCO admitted its disaster
response measures did not function successfully, and that there were
only four workers available to extinguish the fire, which burned for
almost two hours.  The ground vibrations from the earthquake were more
severe than the nuclear plant was designed to withstand, and there are
some indications that a previously undiscovered fault line runs under
the plant.  Japan is one of the world’s most earthquake prone
countries, and also one of the most reliant on nuclear power.  Not a
good combination.The delay in reporting leaks and spills also comes as
no surprise to industry watchers, but it does seem that Japan’s
government may finally be losing patience with an industry rocked by
scandal for the past decade. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters,
“They raised the alert too late. I have sent stern instructions that
such alerts must be raised seriously and swiftly.” He continued, “Those
involved should reflect on their actions.””Nuclear power can only
operate with the people’s trust,” Abe told reporters. The litany below
shows that the betrayal of people’s trust is standing operating
procedure for Japan’s nuclear industry.Nuclear power is never safe, but
it is even more dangerous with a potent combination of lies, cover-ups
and geological fault lines.

A lot to reflect on
The
Japanese nuclear industry, and TEPCO in particular, is no stranger to
scandal.In 2002, three top TEPCO officials resigned after finally
acknowledging that the company had violated safety regulations and
falsified records at three of its largest nuclear power plants
(including the one at Kashiwazaki). All 17 TEPCO reactors were ordered
to shut down at the end of the investigation. The cover-up had been
going on since the 1980s. 

[Author]

July 24, 2007 at 11:12 AM