He praised TEPCO for instituting an improved “safety culture.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Although Barrett “also praised TEPCO for reaching out to experts from the U.S., United Kingdom and elsewhere for assistance,” international participation has been far less evident in the preparations than what other groups, including Japanese regulators and many internationally known scientists, have called for.<\/p>\n
Also on Wednesday, according to TEPCO spokesman Yoshikazu Nagai, TEPCO carried out a non-nuclear test operation for moving the heavy containment cask, as called for by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization and others. Barrett had reportedly prescheduled his site visit, not planned it for this test date. His presence and remarks on the cleanup process hardly constitutes the intense and painstaking scientific and engineering investigation others have been demanding. If such consultation has taken place, it has not been publicized.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, veteran U.S. nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen released a video from the nonprofit Fairewinds Energy Education, which he heads. Now known as a whistleblower but in fact the longtime executive head of a corporate division that built nuclear fuel racks and a Three Mile Island expert witness, Gundersen presented a coherent and educated assessment of the Fukushima situation. His bottom line: the Japanese government should remove TEPCO before removing the fuel.<\/strong><\/p>\nGundersen said that TEPCO’s staff were unqualified to address the situation. (A report came out yesterday that some of the nuclear plant’s hardware was now being held together with duct tape. Some of the company’s own photos and videos appear to show makeshift repairs.) He stated the point at least three times, saying that TEPCO’s staff aren’t engineers, but operators used to running nuclear reactors; “I don’t think… the right people are doing the job”; and TEPCO lacks not only the expertise to do the job right, but also the money to attempt it. He also pointed out some TEPCO omissions:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Loss of boron (a soluble addition to the pool water that absorbs neutrons and lessens the chance of an uncontrolled chain reaction),
\n\u2022 Brittleness of the spent fuel after four years of use,
\n\u2022 Potential of the rods to stick partway out of the racks and not be removable or replaceable,
\n\u2022 Snapped rods being ignited by superheated air, and
\n\u2022 Release of krypton gas, threatening onsite workers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gundersen pulls no punches: in yesterday’s report, he called the explanatory video TEPCO produced “a fantasy cartoon<\/strong>.”<\/p>\nIn the status report TEPCO executives issued on Wednesday, they stated:<\/p>\n
“Beginning this work shifts the focus from site stabilization to real progress. When the work is done, and the fuel is brought to an undamaged storage facility, the site will be safer for workers, for the community, for Japan, and for the world.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It did not mention the risks. Nor did it cite the price of the Unit 4 fuel removal, estimated or actual. TEPCO’s plans for decommissioning the entire Fukushima Daiichi complex are expected to take up to 40 years and cost half a trillion dollars, in today’s numbers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With a photo of fuel rod assemblies in the background, nuclear engineer, former executive, and educator Arnie Gundersen explains his doubts yesterday about the nuclear fuel relocation at Fukushima Unit 4 (screenshot). Brace yourselves. Japanese media and the UPI reported early today that TEPCO has scheduled the ticklish job of relocating highly radioactive nuclear fuel 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Gundersen explains his doubts yesterday about the nuclear fuel relocation at Fukushima Unit 4 (screenshot). Brace yourselves. Japanese media and the UPI reported early today that TEPCO has scheduled the ticklish job of relocating highly radioactive nuclear fuel…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}