One
thing that Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) can be relied upon for:
a never ending stream of disinformation with cesium laden piles of
putridity.
Firstly, there is the matter of the Unit 4 spent fuel pool, that many experts claim could collapse in a major earthquake leading to massive releases of radiation. When I sent the story written by Japanese diplomat, Akio Matsumura, to a Japanese professor I know whose focus is international relations, the tenure-track professor dismissed it as “tabloid journalism.” Talk about a nation with its focus on its own navel, they don’t even know what danger they are in despite the 3/11 catastrophe. Can you imagine what respectable people who attend conferences and wear suits and ties would have said of someone like me if I went on a campaign to alert people of the disaster that awaited Japan pre-March 2011? I would have been completely ignored or laughed at as a Cassandra and conspiracy nut! So were many sincere anti-nuclear activists at the Citizens Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo.
Now we have to attend to the matter of Tepco’s arrogant stupidity, snideness and snottiness. On April 26, 2012, Tepco attempted to refute claims by Arnie Gunderson and other nuclear experts that the Unit 4 fuel pool building was tilting. Tepco stated that “[t]he No. 4 reactor building is not tilted and it, including the storage pool, will not be destroyed by a quake”.1
Yet, very recently we learned from NHK and Tepco itself that the Unit 4 building is less stable than previously thought. NHK, the conservative government-run news station reports of “tilted walls found at Fukushima No.4 reactor” which is different than the entire building being tilted, but does indicate serious problems.2 Tepco, itself, has admitted that the Reactor 4 bulge is worse than previously announced. The Fukushima Diary website reports that “[t]he South-West corner of Reactor 4 building turned out to be bulged” and leaning outward. This clearly contradicts Tepco’s earlier illogical stance quoted above and analyzed and debunked elsewhere3,4,5.
There is more evidence of contradictions from Tepco (i.e., the Nuclear Village), who appear to run the Japanese government, based on statements made by Tepco in a recent news report, versus what the government has stated regarding the speed to which Tepco will remove the fuel rods from the badly damaged Unit 4 building. Perhaps international pressure along with vociferous anti-nuclear domestic protests are working to some extent, given the following report:
Firstly, there is the matter of the Unit 4 spent fuel pool, that many experts claim could collapse in a major earthquake leading to massive releases of radiation. When I sent the story written by Japanese diplomat, Akio Matsumura, to a Japanese professor I know whose focus is international relations, the tenure-track professor dismissed it as “tabloid journalism.” Talk about a nation with its focus on its own navel, they don’t even know what danger they are in despite the 3/11 catastrophe. Can you imagine what respectable people who attend conferences and wear suits and ties would have said of someone like me if I went on a campaign to alert people of the disaster that awaited Japan pre-March 2011? I would have been completely ignored or laughed at as a Cassandra and conspiracy nut! So were many sincere anti-nuclear activists at the Citizens Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo.
Now we have to attend to the matter of Tepco’s arrogant stupidity, snideness and snottiness. On April 26, 2012, Tepco attempted to refute claims by Arnie Gunderson and other nuclear experts that the Unit 4 fuel pool building was tilting. Tepco stated that “[t]he No. 4 reactor building is not tilted and it, including the storage pool, will not be destroyed by a quake”.1
Yet, very recently we learned from NHK and Tepco itself that the Unit 4 building is less stable than previously thought. NHK, the conservative government-run news station reports of “tilted walls found at Fukushima No.4 reactor” which is different than the entire building being tilted, but does indicate serious problems.2 Tepco, itself, has admitted that the Reactor 4 bulge is worse than previously announced. The Fukushima Diary website reports that “[t]he South-West corner of Reactor 4 building turned out to be bulged” and leaning outward. This clearly contradicts Tepco’s earlier illogical stance quoted above and analyzed and debunked elsewhere3,4,5.
There is more evidence of contradictions from Tepco (i.e., the Nuclear Village), who appear to run the Japanese government, based on statements made by Tepco in a recent news report, versus what the government has stated regarding the speed to which Tepco will remove the fuel rods from the badly damaged Unit 4 building. Perhaps international pressure along with vociferous anti-nuclear domestic protests are working to some extent, given the following report:
Workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will begin removing fuel rods from a damaged reactors a year ahead of schedule, a government minister said June 21, a move to address concerns about the risk of a new quake that could cause a further accident and scatter more radioactive debris. ‘We would like to start taking out undamaged fuel this year. Preparation is now under way,’ Japan’s nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono, told Reuters in an interview.6However, in the recent news report aired on June 25, 2012, by ABC Australia,7 we learn from the Tepco spokesman that they have no plans to remove the fuel rods until 2013. Perhaps the word did not get out or there is a disconnect between what the government is trying to promote versus what Tepco is deciding to do. It’s another case of the Keystone Cops (Tepco) playing a game of tiddlywinks with the Larry Curly and Moe Outfit (Japan Government).
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