TEPCO: Not Enough Money To Handle Fukushima Nuclear Reactor 4 Problems

The problems at reactor 4 are the greatest short-term threat to humanity and has the potential to destroy our world and TEPCO doesn’t have the money to fix them.

The problem at Fukushima nuclear reactor 4 which is being dubbed as the greatest short-term threat to humanity and has the potential to destroy our world and civilization as we know it.

Now nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen who is one of the only people providing objective scientific analysis about the Fukushima nuclear fallout believes based on his analysis of the problems that  TEPCO simply doesn’t have enough money to deal with the issues there.

He says this at about 25:00 minutes into a recent program on WBAI’s Five O’Clock Shadow.

Title: Arnie Gundersen Interview
Source: WBAI’s Five O’Clock Shadow
Date: Tuesday April 17, 2012 5:00pm

At ~25:00 in

Host: What about the humpty-dumpty tank in Unit No. 4?

Gundersen: I don’t think Tepco has enough money to tackle the problems that it’s facing.

Download the program here (April 11, 2012 program)
Stream the program here

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Source: EneNews

To put it simply, the nuclear fuel rods in reactor 4 are sitting inside of a pool of water that is preventing them from melting down completely and release massive amounts of radiation far beyond what already has been released.

The structural integrity of the building has been damaged so greatly that it appears that the reactor 4 building is leaning and officials around the world, including US senators, are warning even a minor earthquake could make it collapse.

If the water leaks out of the pool or the reactors come into open contact with the air there will be devastating consequences for all of humanity.

Besides Gundersen’s assertion that TEPCO doesn’t have enough money to deal with the problem, there have also been reports in the Japanese media that TEPCO isn’t dealing with the situation as they should because the cost would hurt their  stock price.

Of course that could change with the recent speculation that TEPCO will be nationalized by the government of Japan but know one knows if nationalization will actually happen or the government is just allowing the cost of the disaster to be placed on the backs of taxpayers.

Furthermore no one knows the true extent of the disaster as a former Fukushima worker has just turned whisteblower and reported TEPCO has been falsifying their reports.

At 0:48 in

NARRATOR: Kimura used to operate the reactors and maintained the fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. He confessed that TEPCO has deceived the government, which regulates the nuclear power plants, in a number of ways.

KIMURA: As a part of operational management of the nuclear power plant, we used to rewrite the daily operative reports. We used to access the computer to falsify the data when things weren’t going our way.

TEPCO is no alone with in their cover up as the government of Japan is current experiencing infighting in regard to revelation after revelation over the last year of a cover up by government officials.

Documents obtained from the US government through FOIA requests, being dubbed Plume-Gate by the alternative media, reveal the US has colluded in the cover up of the disaster as well.

While traveling in Japan several weeks ago, Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen took soil samples in Tokyo public parks, playgrounds, and rooftop gardens. All the samples would be considered nuclear waste if found here in the US. This level of contamination is currently being discovered throughout Japan. At the US NRC Regulatory Information Conference in Washington, DC March 13 to March 15, the NRC’s Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko emphasized his concern that the NRC and the nuclear industry presently do not consider the costs of mass evacuations and radioactive contamination in their cost benefit analysis used to license nuclear power plants. Furthermore, Fairewinds believes that evacuation costs near a US nuclear plant could easily exceed one trillion dollars and contaminated land would be uninhabitable for generations.

Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The US from Fairewinds Energy Education on Vimeo.

About this video

While traveling in Japan several weeks ago, Fairewinds’ Arnie Gundersen took soil samples in Tokyo public parks, playgrounds, and rooftop gardens. All the samples would be considered nuclear waste if found here in the US. This level of contamination is currently being discovered throughout Japan. At the US NRC Regulatory Information Conference in Washington, DC March 13 to March 15, the NRC’s Chairman, Dr. Gregory Jaczko emphasized his concern that the NRC and the nuclear industry presently do not consider the costs of mass evacuations and radioactive contamination in their cost benefit analysis used to license nuclear power plants. Furthermore, Fairewinds believes that evacuation costs near a US nuclear plant could easily exceed one trillion dollars and contaminated land would be uninhabitable for generations.

Video transcript

[BEGIN: RIC Conference Footage]

NRC Chairman Jaczko: The events at Fukushima reinforce that any nuclear accident with public health and safety or environmental consequences of that magnitude, is inherently unacceptable. But we focussed on the radiological consequences of this event. I believe we cannot ignore the large social and economic consequences such an event poses to any country with a nuclear facility that deals with such a crisis.

In Japan, more than 90,000 people remain displaced from their homes and land, with some having no prospect for a return to their previous lifestyle in the foreseeable future. While not easy to characterize, these are significant hardships on these people and they are inherently unacceptable. So as we look to the future and we look in a proactive way, we ultimately will have to address the issue of how do we deal with nuclear events that lead to significant land contamination. And displacement, perhaps permanently, of people from their homes and their livelihoods and their communities.

[END: RIC Conference Footage]

Arnie Gundersen: What you have just heard was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s chairman, Gregory Jaczko, saying that the NRC does not take in to account mass evacuations and people not getting back on their land for centuries when it does a cost benefit analysis as to whether or not a nuclear plant should be licensed.

I am Arnie Gundersen from Fairewinds and today I am at the Regulatory Information Conference put on by the NRC in Washington D.C.

So today, I am in Washington D.C. Couple of weeks ago though, I was in Tokyo and when I was in Tokyo, I took some samples. Now, I did not look for the highest radiation spot. I just went around with five plastic bags and when I found an area, I just scooped up some dirt and put it in a bag. One of those samples was from a crack in the sidewalk. Another one of those samples was from a children’s playground that had been previously decontaminated. Another sample had come from some moss on the side of the road. Another sample came from the roof of an office building that I was at. And the last sample was right across the street from the main judicial center in downtown Tokyo. I brought those samples back, declared them through Customs, and sent them to the lab. And the lab determined that ALL of them would be qualified as radioactive waste here in the United States and would have to be shipped to Texas to be disposed of.

Now think about the ramifications for the nation’s capital, whether it is Tokyo or the United States. How would you like it if you went to pick your flowers and were kneeling in radioactive waste? That is what is happening in Tokyo now. And I think that is the point that Chairman Jaczko was trying to make. When the Nuclear Regulatory Commission does it’s cost benefit analyses now, it does not take into account the cost to society if you have to evacuate for generations or if you have to move 100,000 people, perhaps forever.

There is a hundred miles between us and a dozen nuclear power plants here in Washington D.C. Fukushima was almost 200 miles away from Tokyo, and yet Tokyo soil in some places, the ones I just happened to find, would qualify as radioactive waste here in the United States.

How would we feel if our nation’s capital were contaminated to that degree? So I agree with Chairman Jaczko, new nukes and old nukes that are being re-licensed should include as a cost in their analysis what we have learned to be happening in Tokyo and in Japan.

Thank you very much and I will keep you informed.

Alexander Higgins