Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Fukushima Daiichi Radiation

My friend Akio Matsumura continues his quest to alert the world of a potential nuclear disaster and to his surprise governmental authorities in both the United States and Japan appear reluctant to act.

A year ago a tsunami and earthquake killed tens of thousands in Japan and destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant exposing numerous radioactive elements.

This is a very dangerous situation. We ignore a potential global catastrophe at our own peril. If you want to do something write your Congressman and Senators. Maybe they can finally do something useful for humanity and for America instead of bickering, adding pork to bills and worrying about elections.

Here, in red, is the beginning of Akio's latest post on the situation. You can read more of this post and earlier ones at www.akiomatsumura.com.

"The highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies at the Fukushima-Daiichi power plants present a clear threat to the people of Japan and the world. Reactor 4 and the nearby common spent fuel pool contain over 11,000 highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies, many of which are exposed to the open air. The cesium-137, the radioactive component contained in these assemblies, present at the site is 85 times larger than the amount released during the Chernobyl accident. Another magnitude 7.0 earthquake would jar them from their pool or stop the cooling water, which would lead to a nuclear fire and meltdown. The nuclear disaster that would result is beyond anything science has ever seen.  Calling it a global catastrophe is no exaggeration.
If political leaders understand the situation and the potential catastrophe, I find it difficult to understand why they remain silent.
The following leaves little to question:
  1. Many scientists believe that it will be impossible to remove the 1,535 fuel assemblies in the pool of Reactor 4 within two or three years.
  2. Japanese scientists give a greater than 90 percent  probability that an earthquake of at least 7.0 magnitude will occur in the next three years in the close vicinity of Fukushia-Daiichi.
  3. The crippled building of Reactor 4 will not stand through another strong earthquake.
  4. Japan and the TEPCO do not have adequate nuclear technology and experience to handle a disaster of such proportions alone."

The United States Government is spending more time and fear on preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon than acknowledging the extreme nuclear danger that nature could cause when there is another earthquake in Japan. Japan is in a very active earthquake zone. Scientists say it is not a case of if an earthquake occurs, it is a case of when and predictions are within the next few years.

If the Fukushima Daiichi plant is further exposed and cesium-137 is massively released into the air and sea we won't care that unemployment is high, we won't care about elections or jobs or the economy or Iran and Israel and Afghanistan. Much of the world will be trying to keep from dying of radiation poisoning.

I do not understand why this is not a top priority of all governments and every citizen of the world.

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