Japan's Nuclear Migraine: A Never-Ending Disaster at Fukushima

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/inspector-says-japan-needs-international-help-for-nuclear-plant-a-921302.html


The water tanks were constructed hastily, with more than 1,000 now in operation holding about 335,000 tons of radioactive water.

This week, the chief nuclear officers of around 100 American nuclear power plant reactors are taking a field trip. They are travelling to Japan and then taking a bus to Fukushima. There, dressed in protective suits, they will walk through the ruins left behind by the earthquake of the century, the tsunami of the century and the resulting triple nuclear reactor meltdown that occurred in March 2011.

"I can assure you when they get back from this trip, all of these chief nuclear officers will double their safety precautions," says Dale Klein, who has made the same trip and describes it as "very sobering." Klein, who was head of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission until 2009, now serves as chair of the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee, which advises Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the company that once ran the Fukushima power plant and is now responsible for cleaning up the site. In the eyes of industry experts and the Japanese public alike, the company has proved one thing unequivocally -- that it is in far over its head in trying to handle the aftermath of the disaster.

Klein is generally a polite man, but he recently announced in public exactly what he thinks of the company that hired him. "You do not know what you're doing," Klein told company president Naomi Hirose in person. "You do not have a plan."

In accordance with Japanese custom, the company head, thus chastised, inclined his head and replied, "I apologize for not being able to live up to your expectations."

[exboyfil]

1. It is the expectations of the Japanese people

and us in the other countries which will be living with this for decades the company head should consider. A nation whose primary source of protein comes from the sea is steadily building up radiation in that sea. A nation with little square area to grow its staple grain is taking a portion of that land out of commission for generations.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Even tho I know it is pro forma...

I do like the idea of the company head bowing and apologizing, what a nice daydream to visualize that happening over here.

[CRH]

3. Why are these chief nuclear officers, ...

dressing up in protective suits?