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Why the Japanese Government Should Take Over the Fukushima Nuclear Plant
Lasrick writes "The Japan Times has an opinion piece about the seriousness of the situation at Fukushima and the incompetence of Tepco. The article makes the case that it's time for the Japanese government to step in and take control of the plant to facilitate clean-up. Quoting: 'Japan has been very lucky that nothing worse has occurred at the plant. But luck eventually runs out. The longer Tepco stays in charge of the decommissioning process, the worse the odds become. Without downplaying the seriousness of leaks and the other setbacks at the plant, it is important to recognize that things could very quickly get much worse. In November, Tepco plans to begin the delicate operation of removing spent fuel from Reactor No. 4. There are 1,300 used fuel rod assemblies in a pool above the reactor. They weigh a total of 400 tons, and contain radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The spent-fuel pool, standing 18 meters above ground, was damaged by the earthquake and tsunami and is in a deteriorating condition. It remains vulnerable to any further shocks, and is also at risk from ground liquefaction. Removing its spent fuel, which contains deadly plutonium, is an urgent task.'"
The solution is more government!
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But this goes against two oh-so-fashionable Slashdot hipster propaganda points:
1) The government is always more incompetent than private business!!1
2) Nuclear power cannot harm people!!1
Posting anonymously because the hipster libertarians have a lot of mod points.
The Japanese govt. doesn't feel the necessity to take this on to date, evidenced by their unwillingness to even consider it.
They've already blown oversight, transparency, and emergency response planning. They're not going to suddenly become competent.
Get the IAEA in there, use the UN to pressure them to accept international oversight. There are over 12,000 fuel rods 100 feet in the air.
There's really no more time for trusting the Japanese government.
Just build a Waste-Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR) next to the site, problem solved.
http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/MIT-Develops-Meltdown-Proof-Nuclear-Waste-Eating-Reactor.html
Really now, any time nuclear anything is mentioned in comparison with Hiroshima, you know that someone is trying to scare you. I believe the SI unit would be Becquerels, not "Hiroshimas".
I don't think the government is very likely to take over from TEPCO. TEPCO itself is already practically nationalized due to the vast amounts of money the government has had to pump into it and pay out to those affected by the disaster. By keeping it independent there is someone external to blame for all the problems, which would otherwise be the direct responsibility of the government.
TFA is full of hype but one interesting point that is often missed is worth noting. The earthquake itself damage the plant, and even without the tsunami there would have been a serious accident.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
"Why the Japanese Govt should have taken over from Day 1."
How about they ask the Americans for help? We have had a lot of experience with nukes, and could use a chance to prove that we can still do something in the world besides violate international law. If we fuck it up, then you can blame external powers for it.
Who are they going to have do it? I don't know, let's call in the experts at Tepco.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Privatize the profits (US Big Biz 101)
Obligatory XKCD: http://xkcd.com/1258/
There, FTFY.
Yeah, free enterprise can solve any problem. I am sure there are plenty of entities out there that would love to have a bunch of radioactive waste to play with. I bet they would pay top dollar for it. Only....I think we may not want them to have it. But hey! After they spread it all over Tokyo or NYC, maybe thats actually a business opportunity! Think of the manufacturing revenues we could accrue in coffins.
There is no way they are going to ask for help.
TEPCO always seem to be downplaying any dangerous situation - later to be told by another party that, "Hey it's actually a lot worse than that!" I've lost trust in the PR that comes out of TEPCO.
The corporation is the government.
France might help also. Areva has a lot of experience with nuclear reactors and wastes. They were willing to help during the meltdown, but at this moment Tepco seemed too proud to accept any help from the foreign countries.
They accepted later, as they bought some water filtering equipment to capture radionucleids.
Next time such a disaster occurs, I hope that the host country will not wait to aks help from the most competent companies in the world.
If the government would just stop interfering with the free markets the invisible hand and enlightened self interest would take over and do a much better job! We'd be living in a land of unicorns and rainbows in no time!
Also nuclear power is the only reasonable - and environmentally friendly! - solution to our energy problems. * /sarcasm
* - Excluding all those pesky externalities because we all know in the technologically advanced future we'll magically solve all those problems -- also using the power of the free markets! (some conditions and circular reasoning may apply, offer not valid in all states blah blah blah)
Read that a lot from pro-nuclear folks after the incident. If a tsunami destroyed a large chemical plant, there'd be a lot of poisoned land too.
So, dear pro-nuclear folks, riddle me that:
Name even one chemical catastrophe in a first-world country, that was still an ongoing crisis after two years with those in charge having absolutely no idea how to clean it up without triggering a huge release of even more poison?
The commentary is written by:
Andrew DeWit is a professor in the School of Policy Studies, Rikkyo University. Dr. Christopher Hobson is a research fellow at the Institute for Sustainability and Peace, United Nations University, Tokyo.
Not exactly credentials for someone who should be making the decision on who should do the clean up. Certainly, the government should be monitoring whatever action is taken, and if Tepco is screwing up give them the boot. But, I wouldn't be doing so on the recommendations of these gents.
Just another day in Paradise
the International Nuclear organization's crisis teams and resources should be brought in, given a drawer full of blank checks, and set after it without any more interference by the hacks that caused this catastrophe in the first place.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Why should I care about opinions of people who obviously have no technical knowledge or worse have it and twist facts in the name of supporting their opinion.
"contain radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released by the Hiroshima atomic bomb"
Of one particular constituent Cesum-137 not total radiation.
"Removing its spent fuel, which contains deadly plutonium, is an urgent task."
Of all the deadly radioactive shit in a spent fuel rod to single out "deadly plutonium" mostly an alpha emitter the intention seems to be invocation of irrational response from the public.
They argue scary things can happen therefore Tepco should not be trusted to handle the cleanup yet the opinion piece is silent on governments technical ability to manage this any better than Tepco.
To inject my own opinion where Japan has failed is in its failure to significantly embrace foreign technical help.
TEPCO will go out of business and can't afford the cleanup. New age capitalism requires you to privatize your profits and socialize the losses.
Yep, it's about time the Japanese gov't steps in and takes charge of this mess. TEPCO has demonstrated they don't know what they're doing. Matters can and will get much worse. There are experts worldwide who can be brought in to help. The Russians have some experience with a meltdown. There are probably some TMI era consultants still around. It's going to get very expensive.
We might ought to help them. It's not just their problem. If those fuel rods catch fire, that radioactivity will be drifting towards our Pacific coast.
Wansu, th' chinese sailor
Does anybody think our government could have managed the BP oil blowout?
If the Japanese government cannot even maintain competence at providing oversight for TEPCO, why would a layman think that they could do their job entirely? Possible answer: his brain has the logical faculties of a bowl of grits.
Please sign the petition over at Whitehouse.gov to get the US to act in getting the Japanese government to allow US/UN assistance in cleaning up the spent fuel pools. This is an urgent need.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/require-united-states-petition-un-and-japan-seek-assistance-removing-spent-fuel-fukushima/LHSB04r0
~ X
Contrary to popular belief, life is not a bitch. It is far far worse.
Have those who made the decision to build this global minimum spec engineered nightmare to publicly remove a finger?
TEPCO _is_ the government.
And Japan is bankrupt.
So let the world that so far ignores the disaster step in.
Make TEPCO leave.
Make Japan cede control.
Have the rest of the world fix it. It's be quicker and less euphemistic.
Assuming any survived, that is.
Have gnu, will travel.
If the company is cleaning it up, you have oversight by the government, the government can force the revelation of inconvenient facts, the government can force them to not take unnecessary risks.
But who oversees the government if they're doing it?
The problem was caused by corrupt lying sacks of shit and now you want to let politicians run the show?
That's like exchanging AIDS for terminal cancer!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk_River_Laboratories#1952_NRX-incident Protecting humanity's habitat for over 60 years.
They are no better than TEPCO, they've been downplaying Fukushima since day one, basically, lying their asses off. Nuke them from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
More hype and BS from the anti-nuke hippies. Read El Reg's Lewis Page's articles for better info :
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/21/omg_new_crisis_disaster_at_fukushima_oh_wait_its_nothing_again/
surely you jest. that's three lies in one thought.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Keeping a spotlight on people is a pretty good motivator to keep them working hard.
Corruption tends to blossom when ignored, and TEPCO was suffering from a bad case of the stuff.
Your linked article didn't strike me as being entirely trustworthy in its analysis either. Bias tends to do that.
But I will agree that there is a lot of misinformation floating around.
If only we could somehow create a temporary miniature black hole at the site of the incident and suck the entire plant site and all its radioactively contaminants into a ball of matter no bigger than a pea, and then create a parallel dimensional portal and then send the pea through it and close the portal and just make this whole problem go away.
The pay for these jobs is not that great.
The ability to control the outcomes is greatly limited by many factors - politics, culture, funding, paralysis - making it difficult to succeed, and avoid failure.
Why would any top talent want to become involved?
You would likely be castigated for any failure, and forgotten for any success.
I just read that they lack even simple tank fluid monitoring level technology - even though they admit a basic system would be extremely useful (contrary to some armchair expert assertions here who insist it is impossibly difficult). Why become involved with a project that cannot even deploy simple tank monitoring tech?
Ha! Hahahaha! BWAHahAHAHahAHaHAAHaHahAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAhaa
(breaks down into weeping)
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
IMO they should never have put dangerous stuff in the hands of a for profit company.
Removing its spent fuel, which contains deadly plutonium, is an urgent task.
I won't claim to be an expert on nuclear waste but I can read Wikipedia like everyone else. Plutonium is taken up very slowly by the human body, it's radiation cannot penetrate the skin, and the half life is so long that it's nearly stable. I'm not saying it's something you'd want to play with, but calling the plutonium on site of the Fukushima some sort of urgent task is exaggeration.
The plutonium created in any modern fission reactor is very small. They are specifically designed to burn it up as fast as it is created. Plutonium is only a real hazard if it is airborne, which should not happen unless these people decide it's a good idea to take concrete saws to the mess to cut it up into smaller pieces. Or if they eat it. If the workers are eating the corium then the cesium and other nasty stuff in that will kill them before the plutonium will.
Also, if we turn this over to the Japanese government who are they going to have work on the site? So TEPCO fires all the people there and the government goes looking for out of work nuclear power experts from where now? Yep, the same people working on it now will be working on it then.
This would be just like when the TSA took over airport security in the USA. All those security people were given fancy new uniforms, and now collect a pay check from the government instead of the airport, doing the same thing they were before. The incompetence from the TSA comes from the people that they chose to hire, and those people came from the pool of those willing to do airport security.
Where would the Japanese government find a pool of people willing to work at Fukushima? From the pool of people that work there now. Changing who pays the bills is not going to fix this.
Sorry folks, this is the best we got.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
They talk like all of the 6 units are equally damaged. Units 5 and 6 are, if not intact, in a good enough shape to be returned to be returned to commercial service like the surviving reactor from Chernobyl. The pool of unit 4 as been reinforced, and the structure, after having all the debris from the explosions removed, have a better chance to survive another quake. The building of Unit 2 is almost intact. Unit 3 is the one with the most damage, and have the crane and many large pieces of equipment and debris inside the spent fuel pool; that will be a real challenge. The good thing is that in Unit 4 they don't have to deal with the makeshift cooling equipment to the damaged cores and the radiation coming out from them. The task to clean up the mess in Fukushima I is actually easier in Unit 4, thats why they starting with the fuel removal from the spent fuel pools there.
Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
Nuke the plant out of existence. While a radical idea, if you vaporise it, there will be no more problem. Who needs to decommission it, if it no longer exists? Yes. The area will be radio active for a long time, but it is already radio active for a long time.
The alternative to private is government, which aren't exactly known for allowing the people to know the screwed up stuff they're doing.
Just because somebody doesn't know nuclear terminology doesn't mean you should automatically assume they're sick bastards.
His point was valid, NRC should step in and offer assistance.
always the same, ultra-capitalist companies (banks, nuclear power plant operators) mess stuff up big time and once the profits are reaped by the bosses and the system crashes, they cry for the government to help and patch everything up again - spend billions of our all money - because the companies and people who pulled out literally billions upon billions of profits cant be bothered to do their share.