Monday, November 18, 2013

Today TEPCO Begins Moving Fukushima Fuel Rods

Fukushima is a horrendous mess.  Much worse than I ever imagined it could get.  That mess has been made worse by systemic incompetence of the Japanese government and the Fukushima’s operator, TEPCO.  

While no one in the brain-dead mainstream U.S. media is talking about it, today TEPCO starts a very, very dangerous process of removing the spent fuel rods from the top floor of their containment facility.  A facility that is apparently incredibly unstable with a serious risk of collapse.  And fuel rods that appear to possibly already be damaged.  How they actually accomplish this successfully will likely be incredibly difficult and fraught with risks.  But were that containment facility to collapse and the spent fuel rods to catch fire or if this effort meets with any type of substantial failure, Japan could become a human-free zone.  And the U.S. and the entire northern hemisphere could suffer substantial contamination and death.    The nasty stuff in the fuel rods has a long half life as well.  It would be the Pepsi Syndrome on steroids. 

Frankly, it’s disappointing that the Japanese government has not formally convened nuclear experts from around the world to develop a catastrophe containment plan and a fuel rod removal plan.  There are excellent skills and technical capabilities from around the world that are not being employed.  Almost every country with a core competency in nuclear disaster and crisis management has offered their services.   I’m not certain we want the literal fate of humanity in the hands of the corporation who has fumbled this disaster time and again.

This is a clusterf*ck extraordinaire with only bad and worse options.  If you live in North America, you are certainly already exposed whether you realize it.   A little primer on the body and radioactivity poisoning here.

posted by TimingLogic at 1:55 PM