From the Mainichi Daily News, Mainichi, Japan. Human translated, summary by T. Marks, subsequent editing & emphasis mine.
TEPCO won't take Chernobyl approach to resolving nuclear power plant crisis Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) adviser Toshiaki Enomoto is pictured at the company's Tokyo head office. It may take 10 years to start removing damaged nuclear fuel from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, but the plant's operator is adamant not to bury the damaged reactors while fuel remains in them, a company official has said: "We will definitely remove the fuel." Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) adviser Toshiaki Enomoto stressed that the company would not bury the reactors in concrete in a "stone tomb" approach like the one adopted at Chernobyl.
TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata has announced plans to decommission the plant's No. 1 through 4 reactors. Normally it takes 20 to 30 years to decommission a reactor, but the process at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant is expected to take even longer as workers must start by developing specialized equipment to remove damaged fuel.
Enomoto said that for the time being the ongoing process of injecting water into the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors at the plant was essential. The plant's residual heat removal system could take a month to get up and running again, Enomoto said. At the same time measures will proceed to have radioactive material contained within the reactor buildings within a few months, Enomoto said. Enomoto said nuclear fuel at the plant could not be removed using conventional methods for two reasons: The reactor buildings are damaged, and measures are needed to prevent the spread of radiation; and 25 to 70 percent damage has occurred to the fuel rods in the No. 1, 2 and 3 reactors. New methods to remove the fuel must be developed, and it will take 10 years before workers can start removing fuel, he said.
This March 24, 2011 aerial photo taken by a small unmanned drone and released by AIR PHOTO SERVICE shows damaged Unit 4 of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan. (AP Photo/AIR PHOTO SERVICE) The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that it took five years for workers to be able to open a pressurized container following the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station accident in March 1979, when about 45 percent of the nuclear reactor fuel melted. It was another six years before the removal of nuclear fuel was completed. He worked at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant four times, including when the No. 1 reactor was started up on a trial basis in 1970. He resigned as executive vice president and head of the company's nuclear power headquarters in 2002 over the cover-up of nuclear reactor trouble.Now is this because that's the best way to do this? Or because the fuel is extremely costly? I certaintly hope its the former; perhaps my new hero Arnold Gundersen willl address this. Because if not, if he is subjecting us all to this horror because of money.... I try not to use foul language here.
Be seeing you.
UPDATE: Excellent discussion of this post at reddit -- thought my Gentle Readership might benefit.
These men have no honor, If I was the emperor I would order them to commit Seppuku.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the rest of us, Human Beings are being poisoned through the water, air and food!?
ReplyDeleteANd meanwhile, the sea life is being killed around Japan, and will proliferate in the ocean water world wide!?
It seems then, that the Elite/tptb, the rulers of this Planet, the Blob things working the corporations, are not able to withstand radiation poisoning, and live and thrive in it?
Now, tell me whether these CREATURES are natives to this world?
Is this not the very proof that these, THESE CREATURES are Soulless Aliens!?
I really don't care if Mephistopheles is "saved" or not! That's his problem. He was a grown, mature entity. He KNEW what he was doing. I don't even think he had a Soul to save.
My problem is my life and that of my family. That's my responsibility.
We, came to this Life, to live better. It's NOT supposed to be this way. That world, a beauteous, primeval, forested place, has been wrested from the control of Human Beings, and turned into a HELL on Earth, for ALL Living Creations.
Entombing a reactor in concrete is not exactly a well-tested method and there's no guarantee that it'll contain the radioactive materials. Concrete doesn't last forever, either, especially if is cast with poor planning and contains hot radioactive materials inside. There are serious concerns about the concrete that was poured in haste at Chernobyl. A new containment building is being constructed there. It's planned to cover the current sarcophagus, which is to be dismantled inside the new building.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Understands. I would have thought by now some TEPCO execs would have done the honorable thing and committed suicide. I guess greed has replaced honor in Japan nowadays just like in the US. Too bad.
ReplyDeleteFukushima is adjacent to an ocean and has shallow ground water. Also the Chernobyl sarcophagus is leaking so badly its to be covered over. Simply pouring concrete Fukushima would likely to have long term catastrophic results. Imagine a Radioactive spewing mega-geyser or similar.
ReplyDeleteNow, they need to deal with it more rapidly than they are talking. Frankly they need to send their administration in as "liquidators" to have actual hands and eyes at the abandoned and now dry storage pools... that would probably be fatal, but if they don't do it they will kill a lot more in the long term.
I'm sorry, do you even know what you are talking about? Are you a nuclear scientist? Clearly not.
ReplyDeletePouring concrete is known to be a hasty, short-term solution. Sometimes a solution beneficial to the long-term has short-term consequences.
My name is Howard T. lewis III. The first Howard Lewis was the son of the first U.S. court judge in Washington territory. Another relative named Howard T Lewis was dean of the Business School at the University of Washington in 1920 and wrote a book called the Agriculture and Industry of the Pacific Northwest. I was a publisher for a few months of a small newspaper called_______, maybe to be revived. Any other questions or requests for ammo in a law suit must be regarded as none of your business. I get most angry at some rich mother-fucker's dog humping my leg. Let's continue along the lines of destroying the Fed so the cretins can no longer rule or set the agenda. I have sent only one anonymous comment in my life and it made me feel cheap and used.
ReplyDeleteThe parents of these TEPCO guys had too many children, as did the parents GE and Wright- Schuchart and Harbor employees.
Readers, we will not see the full impact of this disaster for years, be warned NOW.
ReplyDelete"Something wicked this way comes"
15-20 years to decommission a plant... we dont have that long. Remember, its not just putting cement on top, the radioactive and super heated spent fuel is like lava, its melting and is exothermic. They can stop it!
Facts are that due to the meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant 3/4ths of the world's population is being murdered. This is directly from the HAARP weapon creating the earthquake & tsunami in Japan. Headed by George H.W. Bush Sr. & the Rockefellers, they are carring out their culling agenda in order to bring in their New World Order. It is now too late to stop it. . . Everyone needs to get their house in order. . . . See you on the other side.
ReplyDeleteYou must first break up the damaged fuel rods into smaller bundles or groups so they don't go critical and explode again. And quit screwing around with comments. A thicker slab of cement over this mess yields a correspondingly greater explosion. To hell with mephistophelis. He was a wanker who never really listened in class. So he made shit up.
ReplyDeleteexcuse me Howard T. Lewis III; i am not 'screwing around with comments'. if blogger blocked a comment i am sorry (about to go check); other than that don't know what you mean. please explain.
ReplyDeleteam treating the ad-ministrative part of your response as separate from the ad-hominem part.
This site has a game playing editor.Good-bye.
ReplyDeletepity, wanted to ask how he knew that about mephistophelis; just as well. never did find any blocked comments, and thought it rude of him not to explain. among other things.
ReplyDeletebeing as non-game-playing as i can; accept suggestions.