The Rape of Fukushima Dai-Ichi

Dressed all in white from head to toe (including a respirator), it was a shotgun wedding.  Or worse, a rape.  But one way or the other, U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials were out to force themselves and their radiation on a helpless Japan — again.  Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945.  More than a hundred thousand dead, perhaps as many born deformed, or stillborn.  Then there was Monju in 1995, and Tokaimura in 1997, and again in 1999.  And then Fukushima Dai-ichi, 2011.

And now they’re back.  The NRC delegation wants Japan to restart more of its nuclear reactors.  They’ve been pushing Japan for more than a year, but the citizens of Japan have been opposing restart vehemently.

American nuclear officials toured the stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.  NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane, who led the delegation, praised the “courage” of the Japanese nuclear workers at the Fukushima Dai-ichi and nearly-as-damaged Fukushima Dai-ni nuclear power plants.  The delegation took an elevator to the top of the spent fuel pool at Fukushima Dai-ichi Unit 4, the most dangerous place on earth.  They called the accident a tragedy, and said all countries need independent regulators, who need to operate in an “open and transparent manner.”

We, the citizens of California who live near the also-not-operating San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, can tell the Japanese people exactly what that will mean.

We’ve been fighting for “open and transparent” nuclear regulation, and independent regulators, for decades.  So we can tell the Japanese people that the #1 obstacle we have faced in achieving that — is the NRC itself!

And although MacFarlane hasn’t been in office long, there’s no reason to expect a change.  No changes appears in the offing here in California, where the next NRC meeting about San Onofre will be held with the pubic in absentia — 2700 miles away, in Maryland.

The NRC continues to work in collusion with the nuclear industry to keep old, dilapidated nuclear power plants open forever — 20 year licenses automatically become 40, then 60, then who-knows-what.  It doesn’t seem to matter to the NRC that everywhere they look, reactors are leaking tritium.  It doesn’t seem to matter that there is a “waste confidence” issue that federal judges have ruled needs to be resolved.  And it doesn’t seem to matter than all over America, nuclear power plants are crumbling due to age.  Parts are rusting out and failing abruptly (Davis-Besse’s “hole in the reactor pressure vessel head” in 2002 is a classic example, and Vermont Yankee’s collapsed cooling system in 2007 is another).  Major components have failed at numerous nuclear power plants, and it’s only a matter of time before there’s a U. S. meltdown.  Will it be San Onofre?

And what will Macfarlane and the NRC do when there is a U. S. meltdown?

Mitigate!  Mitigate?

What does THAT mean?  Those who have been following nuclear issues for decades (like myself) know it means NOTHING.  After a nuclear accident, the poisons blanket the area, thousands of lethal doses per square mile, maybe tens of thousands, maybe millions.

Accidents permanently displace people and contaminate the land.  Hundreds of square miles around Fukushima Dai-ichi are no longer inhabitable.  So what does “mitigation” mean?  Nothing.

Imagine if we were to lose ALL of Southern California due to ONE industrial accident!  That’s what happened in Japan.  San Onofre could make Los Angeles AND San Diego, and all points in-between, uninhabitable for generations in just a few hours.  Fukushima is still spewing poisons into the air and water — hence the white suits and respirators for the visitors and workers.  San Onofre can do the same thing.

Macfarlane said the Fukushima accident “profoundly changed the nuclear safety landscape and brought a new urgency to improving nuclear safety worldwide.”  But here in Southern California, the NRC won’t force San Onofre to stop trying to restart a broken, old, dilapidated, nuclear reactor!  And there is NO transparency, no openness, no independence!  Citizens cannot speak to regulators in an adjudicatory process, that is:  They can be lied to.  No official records of the meetings and hearings are kept, no one is under oath.  Promises are made and broken.  Nothing changes.

Macfarlane said we’ve “learned a considerable amount” since the 3/11/11 accident.  Have we?  Here in California is a perfect opportunity to shut down a dangerous old reactor near numerous earthquake faults AND in a tsunami inundation zone.  But instead the utility is trying to spend billions of dollars (of ratepayer’s money) to keep San Onofre operating.  And meanwhile, the utility actively blocks or delays numerous renewable energy projects in order to appear to “need” San Onofre.  And the state regulators have no shame:  They give San Onofre everything it needs.

Friday Macfarlane will meet with Japanese regulators and then, this weekend, with officials from around the “global nuclear regulatory” community.  Let’s hope when she gets back to America, she converts lip service into action.

Russell D. Hoffman lives in Carlsbad, California. He is an educational software developer and bladder cancer survivor, as well as a collector of military and nuclear historical documents and books. He is the author and programmer of the award-winning Animated Periodic Table of the Elements. He can be reached at: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com

counterpunch

5 Comments on "The Rape of Fukushima Dai-Ichi"

Steve Foster on Wed, 19th Dec 2012 3:31 am 



This is a piece of fact-free hyperbolic nonsense.

The chairman of UNSCEAR work (U.N. Sci. Cmte on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) Wolfgang Weiss said that preliminary findings were that no radiation health effects had been observed in Japan among the public, workers or children in the area of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This is in line with studies already published by the World Health Organisation and Tokyo University that showed people near the damaged power plant received such low doses of radiation that no discernible health effect could be expected.

Low level radiation exposure guidelines (.25mSv/yr) are typically a tiny fraction of **what many people receive from natural radiation background** around the world (3mSv, some areas up to 30mSv, extreme case ~300mSv!). No health effects can be expected for doses less than 100mSv, and this is assuming the highly contentious linear no-threshold dose-response model for risk. The highest dose thought to be received by a Japanese child is 35mSv.

Here we have the largest bloody nuclear accident in a generation AND NO ONE WILL DIE OR EVEN GET SICK DUE TO RADIATION because levels are so low relative to truly harmful exposures.

We forget that we are exposed daily to low level radiation. We would need to see exposures much MUCH higher than Fukushima delivered before anyone would run the chance of getting sick. This has been irresponsibly hyped to the detriment of the lives of thousands in the area.

Forced evacuation because of irresponsible fear mongering has caused real harm. The radiation… ZERO! Please – science, facts and reason.

The danger from burning fossil fuels and dumping millions and billions of tons of waste into the atmosphere is REAL and kills thousands every day. That’s what you want more of when the worst a decades-old N-plant can do, when hit with the worst earthquake / tsunami in modern history, KILLS NO ONE!?!? WTF?

My god people, stupidity such as this – fear mongering hyped nonsense trying to stop the only large-scale source of carbon free power – is bloody dangerous to our collective future given the real dangers of fossil fuel pollution and climate change.

BillT on Wed, 19th Dec 2012 12:15 pm 



As I mentioned before. Require each major stockholder and all executives of a nuclear plant to keep a spent fuel rod in the pool or basement of the home their family lives in. Ditto, the NRC.

You don’t hear about it because GE owns the news outlets in America and makes many of these nuclear reactors and their replacement parts. So, lets send a spent fuel rod to every GE manager or executives family to be kept in the bottom of their swimming pool.

I hope that Japan never restarts these disasters waiting to happen. And when one goes in the Us, I hope they too are all shut down. These are WMDs that should never have been made in the first place.

Kenz300 on Wed, 19th Dec 2012 5:59 pm 



The disaster at Fukishima continues today with current plans for an estimated 30 years to stabilize and clean up the disaster site. TEPCO is broke and is being propped up by the taxpayers of Japan. THe cost and clean up will go on FOREVER.

The ties between the regulators, nuclear industry and politicians are too close and cozy. Independent regulators that have the safety of the people and the environment in mind seems to be lacking.

It is time for Japan to transition to safe, clean alternative energy sources and away from nuclear energy.

Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future. The people of Japan need to stand strong and demand an end to nuclear power.

ken nohe on Thu, 20th Dec 2012 12:53 am 



“Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.” Most certainly but they are not the present. Right now it is the path to misery and at the very least a much lower standard of living. Japan is in a quandary and the likely solution will be muddle through for as long as you can: Restart some reactors in spite of popular opposition, more energy savings, much higher energy costs. No bright future anywhere you look. The tunnel looks more and more like a well for Japan and the flicker of light is the moon being reflected on th water!

Kenz300 on Thu, 20th Dec 2012 5:25 am 



No one would have thought that Japan that Japan could shut down 50 nuclear reactors and still have the economy continue to produce goods and services.

Energy conservation has gone a long way toward helping Japan cope with the disaster. Converting to LED lighting which uses less than 1/3rd the energy would reduce electricity demand effectively.

I am confident that the people of Japan will move to safe, clean alternative energy sources and away from nuclear energy. It is time to break up the energy monopolies in Japan and require the utilities to meet increasing alternative energy requirements.

Wind, solar, wave energy and geothermal can all become part of the solution. Nuclear Energy and the collusion of the regulators, industry and politicians is the problem.