Clean Up of Fukishima is "Humanly Impossible"

courtesy: TEPCo

Nuclear experts are becoming increasingly skeptical of Japan's ability to contain high levels of radioactivity emanating from the melting nuclear power reactors at Fukushima Daichi. TEPCo, the station's owner said that surface level radiation on parts used in a reactor could reach several thousand sieverts per hour, much more than the worse levels found at Chernobyl. Radiation inside reactor two is so intense it caused a hardened robotic device to fail.  It was built to withstand 1000 Sv/hr. According to one expert these levels will make decommissioning the plant impossible for a hundred years or more.  He recommends the three severely damaged reactors be entombed.  A molten core has apparently melted through one containment vessel into the Earth. [photo above]. TEPCO recorded a level of 530 Sv/hr in reactor 2--a lethal level of radiation after even a brief exposure.    For comparison purposes, a US nuclear worker is allowed an exposure of 50ⅿSv per year.  The Fukushima disaster occurred six years ago.

A prominent Australian physician, diplomat of the American Board of Pediatrics, and activist, Dr. Helen Caldicott, discussed the truth about Fukushima Daichi:

The reactor complex was built adjacent to a mountain range and millions of gallons of water emanate from the mountains daily beneath the reactor complex, causing some of the earth below the reactor buildings to partially liquefy. As the water flows beneath the damaged reactors, it immerses the three molten cores and becomes extremely radioactive as it continues its journey into the adjacent Pacific Ocean....Vast areas of Japan are now contaminated, including some areas of Tokyo, which are so radioactive that roadside soil measuring 7,000 becquerels per kilo would qualify to be buried in a radioactive waste facility in the U.S...Bottom line, these reactors will never be cleaned up nor decommissioned because such a task is not humanly possible.

 

About 90,000 more tons of contaminated cooling water are held in above ground storage tanks and in the reactor buildings' basements. All of this contaminated storage is at risk from seismic activity in the region. Despite all of these huge difficulties Japan's minister of economy is officially optimistic that Fukushima can be decommissioned and rebuilt by, "mobilizing all of Japan's technical ability."  Is not technological hubris the reason Fukushima happened in the first place?