Who could have imagined, who could have ever imagined, that building a series of nuclear power plants on a geological fault line, in an area with high tectonic activity, would turn out so badly?
Who could ever have imagined, that this was a bad idea?
On the upside, could one conceive a more appropriate celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster than three "Chernobyl's"? (at least three, six other reactors at Onagawa and Fukushima Daini are in waiting). It is still 43 days till the anniversary, but on April 26, 2011 the whole severity of the Japanese nuclear catastrophe will have sunken in and the mood will be appropriate, though most likely not festive and celebratory.
Commemorating 25 years after Chernobyl with another nuclear disaster -- sometimes life writes the best stories!
No, I'm not cynical, at least not more than the nuclear industry propaganda departments. One Australian expert declared: "The upshot of this is, if you can have a 9 quake followed by a massive tsunami on a 40-year-old nuclear reactor and the likelihood of there being a major problem is considered to be very low, isn't that pretty safe?"
NEI (US Nuclear Energy Institute) spokesman Mitch Singer: Americans should be "reassured" by the crisis unfolding in Japan. "There hasn't been any significant release of radiation. So obviously they must be doing something right at this point."
Despite the "insignificant release of radiation", the US navy began moving ships of the 7th Fleet, that were sent to aid the relief effort, including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, out of areas downwind of the power plant. The USS Reagan already went through a radioactive cloud. 17 US servicemen aboard helicopters flying 100 kilometer from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant were contaminated with radiation.
Caesium 137 and Strontium have already been detected around Fukushima, indicating a meltdown-in-progress, and Japans Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano confirmed, that the fuel rods were melting in all three reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. However, he said: "radiation around the plant remaines at tolerable levels."
What means "tolerable"?
Japan has asked the US for help to stop the earthquake damaged nuclear reactors plunging into an uncontrollable meltdown.
The three reactor cores are a melting mass of concrete, steel, the zirconium alloy casings of the fuel rods and uranium. If the fuel at a nuclear reactor is melting down completely and breaches the reactor's containment vessel, it could cause a gigantic explosion as superheated (4,000 degrees) fuel comes into contact with the water coolant. Fuel rods contain enormous amounts of radioactive material -- each reactor can release more radiation than 1,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.
Even if a complete meltdown can be avoided, the seawater, that is pumped into the reactors to cool them is converted into radioactive contaminated steam that has to be constantly released and that could go on for month. It would not be as catastrophic as the explosions of the reactor cores, but it would effect the whole world population, just as Chernobyl did.
France advised all French nationals to leave Tokyo and the Kanto area and asked its citizens to postpone any travels planned to Japan. Australia, Britain and the USA also warned of traveling to Japan.
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I HOPE, I'M WRONG!
I HOPE, I'M WRONG!
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There are 62 reactors under construction around the world, of which 27 are in China, 10 in Russia and five each in South Korea and India. The nuclear industry propaganda departments will find their voice again and tell us, that they are for sure not built as shoddy as the Japanese reactors, and the crews will not be as sloppy and messy than the Japanese, and the technology will be the newest and best and will never fail. And Obama will find his voice again and promote "clean and safe nuclear energy", he already proved his astonishing flexibility when he promoted offshore oil drilling and the BP gulf disaster came in the way.
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