John LaForge writing at
Counterpunch tells
US that the Fukushima multiple nuclear meltdown in 2011 after a massive 9.0 earthquake spawned a tsunami that inundated the seaside Fukushima Diaichi power plant is still leaking radiation and contaminated cooling water. The continuing impacts on the planet and the region fall into these categories:
- Disease-- Only one human disease caused by exposure to radiation has been studied--thyroid cancer. 380,000 children from the region were screened for the disease. In January 2018 a scientific journal reported 187 cases of cancer in five years from that sample. A typical population of the same size would normally produce only 12 cases. The marked increase is consistent with radiation exposure.
- Aftershocks-- Fukushima has suffered six major aftershocks since 2011. The latest, a 7.3 earthquake, hit the region on February 13th. At a Feb. 15 meeting, government regulators said the quake had probably worsened existing earthquake damage in reactors 1 and 3, or broken open new cracks causing the cooling water level drop, according to AP. TEPCO knew Fukushima Daichi was built in a high-risk earthquake zone.
- Contaminated Soil--A major typhoon slammed the shore in October 2019 dispersing bags of radioactive debris that were stacked near a river. Since March 2011, 22 million cubic meters of soil and debris have been collected in large plastic bags and piled in temporary mounds in thousands of locations. According to one press report in the Indian newspaper, The Hindu, no decontamination of forested areas covering 75% of the contaminated region of 9,000 km² is planned.
- Radioactive Fallout--Highly radioactive, large particles of cesium isotopes have been found. A Japanese scientist who has studied the cesium particles told the press “the newly found highly radioactive particles have not yet decayed significantly. As such, they will remain in the environment for many decades to come, and this type of particle could occasionally still be found in radiation hot spots.” Smaller radioactive particles of uranium, thorium, radium, cesium, strontium, polonium, tellurium and americium were found afloat throughout Northern Japan in areas cleared for human habitation.
- Cleanup Failures and Deceptions--The international environmental organization, Greenpeace has issued two reports critical of the clean-up process and lack of transparency about efforts. Most of the 840 km² area the government is responsible for decontaminating remains contaminated by radioactive cesium. In the areas where evacuation orders were lifted in 2017, specifically Namie and Iitate, radiation levels remain above safe limits, potentially exposing the population to increased cancer risk. For years, TEPCO claimed that the treated water stored at the plant contained only relatively harmless tritium, but data on its website shows that the treatment process has failed. The tanks now hold almost 1.25 million tons of highly contaminated waste water, containing dangerous strontium-90, which it plans to dump into the Pacific. Greenpeace concluded in its study of decommissioning that the current decommissioning plan in 30-40 years is impossible to achieve and is illusory.
Radioactive waste created at the site should not be moved. Fukushima Daichi is already and should remain a nuclear waste storage site for the long term. That conclusion is essentially the same one the Russians reached after the meltdown of Chernobyl in April, 1986.
Are you sure want nuclear power to remain a significant part of our energy generation portfolio?
NIMBY!: the last nuclear power station in Oregon (Trojan) went off line in 1992 after cracks were discovered in steam turbine tubes. Decommissioning began in 1993. The highly contaminated reactor vessel was entombed in concrete, transported upriver, and buried forty-five feet deep at the Hanford, WA nuclear waste site. The cooling tower was finally imploded in 2006, but the radioactive fuel rods are still stored on-site along the Columbia River awaiting a permanent storage solution, which has eluded regulators since the 1960's. All of these extraordinary costs are just part of the incredibly expensive nuclear fuel cycle that would never produce electricity "too cheap to meter".
John LaForge writing at Counterpunch tells US that the Fukushima multiple nuclear meltdown in 2011 after a massive 9.0 earthquake spawned a tsunami that inundated the seaside Fukushima Diaichi power plant is still leaking radiation and contaminated cooling water. The continuing impacts on the planet and the region fall into these categories: