10/4/2012 Top Nuclear Experts: Technology Doesn’t Yet Exist to Clean Up Fukushima

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 10/4/2012

Containing Fukushima Is Beyond Current Technology

World-renowned physicist Michio Kaku said recently:

It will take years to invent a new generation of robots able to withstand the radiation.

(The radiation inside the reactors is too hot even for robots.)
AP reports:

Hiroshi Tasaka, a nuclear engineer and professor at Tama University who advised the prime minister after the disaster …  said the government target of removing all the rods by the end of next year may prove too optimistic because of many unknowns, the need to develop new technology and the risk of aftershocks.

The world leader in decommissioning nuclear reactors, and one of the main contractors hired to clean up Fukushima – EnergySolutions – made a similar point in May:

Concerning the extraction of fuel debris [at Fukushima], which is considered the most challenging process, “There is no technology which may be directly applied,” said [top EnergySolutions executive] Morant.

10/3/2012 AMERICAN Government Forces Re-Start of Japanese Nuclear Reactors

Source: Washington's Blog
Date: 10/3/2012

Americans Are Largely Responsible for Japan’s Ongoing Nuclear Policy

Archaic nuclear reactor designs such as those used at Fukushima – built by American company General Electric – were chosen because they were good for making nuclear bombs.   The U.S. secretly helped Japan develop its nuclear weapons program starting in the the 1980s.  Therefore, the U.S. played a large role in Japan’s development of nuclear energy.  (See this).

After the Fukushima disaster – in an effort to protect the American nuclear industry – the U.S. has joined Japan in raising “acceptable” radiation levels.  U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also signed a pact with her counterpart in Japan agreeing that the U.S. will continue buying seafood from Japan, despite the fact that the FDA is refusing to test seafood for radiation in any meaningful fashion.  So U.S. actions are helping to protect a pro-nuclear policy in Japan.

Indeed, mainstream Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that it was President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton who have pressured the Japanese to re-start that country’s nuclear program after the Japanese government vowed to end all nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
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