| That's a stunningly ignorant risk assessment. Unit 4 has significant structural damage, and contains the most (and most recently used) fuel rods, stored outside the containment wall. Another 7.5 earthquake could cause a collapse triggering a fuel rod fire that could not be put out. TEPCO's plan states that they cannot begin removing fuel rods until 2013, or possibly 2014. [1]. "There is as much cesium in the fuel pool at Unit 4 as there was in all of the atomic bombs dropped in all of the tests in the 1940's, the 1950's, the 1960's, and into the 1970's." All that is required for a catastrophic release of radiation across the northern hemisphere is a significant seismic event. Fukushima is now classed alongside Chernobyl as a category 7 reactor event, the area surrounding Fukushima will take decades to clean up, and the Japanese Government has admitted major human error within regulatory bodies, and within TEPCO and credulous government acceptance of the Nuclear industry's unfounded safety claims. [2] And Muller claims that "Fukushima passed the test". You can't make this stuff up. But you can call it what it is, historical revisionism by an ardent supporter of the nuclear industry. Considering the still perilous situation, it is a breathtakingly irresponsible and insensitive article to write. Truly astonishing. [1] http://www.fairewinds.com/content/fukushima-daiichi-truth-an... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disas... |
Or maybe it's just a rational one. None of what you've brought up contradicts my point. The problem isn't ignorance on my part, but rather hysteria on yours. Really, if this is the way you approach life I'm surprised you have the courage to get out of bed in the morning.
>Unit 4 has significant structural damage, and contains the most (and most recently used) fuel rods, stored outside the containment wall. Another 7.5 earthquake could cause a collapse triggering a fuel rod fire that could not be put out.
Or it could do nothing at all. You do realize they spent the first part of this year pouring concrete and putting in steel rods to stabilize that building, right? Did you think they've been drinking sake and shooting the breeze all this time?
>"There is as much cesium in the fuel pool at Unit 4 as there was in all of the atomic bombs dropped in all of the tests in the 1940's, the 1950's, the 1960's, and into the 1970's."
Yes, the reactors and pools are contaminated. And it will take a few years to get all that ugly stuff into completely safe storage. And? As long as the fuel doesn't go anywhere it doesn't matter how long it takes to clean up.
>Fukushima is now classed alongside Chernobyl as a category 7 reactor event, the area surrounding Fukushima will take decades to clean up
I find it amazing people can say (presumably) with a straight face that because shares some subset of characteristics with Chernobyl that it's OMG JUST AS BAD AS CHERNOBYL!!!! It's not as bad as Chernobyl by orders of magnitude. It never was.
As far as the exclusion zone goes, it's only 20 km. Even for a country as land-poor as Japan that's not much.