Fukushima crisis -- a ‘global catastrophe'?

[Karlis]

From the article:

... should such an event occur, it would adversely affect the thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods nearby, which are dangerously exposed to air. Nuclear expert Robert Alvarez, the former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, spelled out the potential disaster in more specific — and chilling — terms in an email sent to renowned Japanese diplomat Akio Matsumura.

“If an earthquake or other event were to cause the pool to drain, this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of [radioactive] Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl incident,” Alvarez stated.

However, things could get much worse. According to Alvarez, if the 11,138 spent nuclear fuel rods contained in the facility also went up in flames, it would unleash 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl disaster. In addition, a recent study of the meltdown at Chernobyl offers a sobering analysis of the situation, ENS News reports. According to research compiled by Russian scientists and published in the New York Academy of Sciences, the nuclear fallout from the Chernobyl disaster killed over one million people worldwide from 1986 to 2004. If the worst-case scenario at Fukushima becomes a reality, the effects could lead to millions of casualties around the globe....

Source: http://peakoil.com/enviroment/nuclear-experts-fukushima-crisis-may-become-global-catastrophe/

[+and-then]

Has there been any explanation of why steps aren't being taken to secure the spent fuel? If the issue is as potentially grave as this points to then it seems the whole world should be helping to ensure the problem gets solved. They must have plans of removing the fuel soon or else they would have already begun building a containment sarcophagus like at Chernobyl.

[sickpuppy]

..it always makes me wonder about that bible prophecy; a third of all the life in the ocean was killed (etc)

[+and-then]

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the end time prophecies aren't recognized in fulfillment because they occur as a result of man made problems like this, oil spills etc. As if they aren't as real because we understand what happened. the 1/3 of sea life would be just as dead, no?

[Ashotep]

I'm already afraid to eat fish from that part of the world. I think it was worse than they let on. I just hope there is no big earthquake, like Japan won't have an earthquake or it doesn't catch on fire. I don't think they are prepared to handle it.

[Ugly1]

This seems to be a huge issue that nobody seems to be talking about.

[Indiogene]

This seems to be a huge issue that nobody seems to be talking about.

One has to check on media sources based on science, nuclear energy and the alternative press with lesser restrictions than the MSM...to keep up to date on the lates developments. The Fukushima nuclear power plant must be shut down forever and any nuclear power plant declared "unsafe" near major seismic faults, then we need to reconsider the two facilities closest to the largest cities: Turkey Point 100 miles north of New York City and San Onofre 60 miles southeast of L.A. are locations not suitable for them at the first place. Fukushima would be 10x worse than Chernobyl which has one million fatalities in the span of two decades...and imagine 10 times the death toll in a wider area of the globe in a shorter period of time predicted.

Edited May 28, 2012 by Mike the Autist-ic

[Frazzill]

Read fukushima-diary dot com it'sa daily blog by a Japanese citizen who livd through it & he spills the beans on how Japan is lying about what happened & what is on going! It will boggle your mind. I wouldn't eat ANY food from Japan or any seafood from the whole area- millions of gallons of radioactive water was released into the ocean from fukushima! The problem is still going on- radiation is still being released from fukushima! Everyone thinks because it's not on the news that all is fine. The Japanese have put a block on news media reporting on it! I don't even know if USA checks for radiation of foods/vegetables as they arrive from importing.

[Karlis]

Dr Helen Caldicott – Fukushima Nuclear Disaster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4dJ0XqmMMs

Read more

Edited May 28, 2012 by Karlis

[Karlis]

Experts warn of another disaster awaiting at Fukushima

Japanese and US nuclear experts warn that another earthquake hitting Fukushima could spark a disaster worse than Chernobyl.

Video and Transcript here

[Render]

Japan switches on Ohi nuclear reactor amid protests

http://www.bbc.co.uk...d-asia-18662892

it's not like they really had a choice. Shutting of all nuclear power was a not very well thought through panic decision, leaving millions without power...of course they couldn't keep that up.

[Karlis]

Fukushima reactor meltdown was a man-made disaster, says official report

Japanese investigators say tsunami wasn't sole cause of nuclear accident and criticise collusion and poor regulation.

"The Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was the result of collusion between the government, the regulators and Tepco, and the lack of governance by said parties," said the report, compiled by the Fukushima nuclear accident independent investigation commission.

Read full story here

[White Crane Feather]

What will really blow your mind is that Fukushima is nothing compared to what can happen in a large long term grid shut down. All power plants need that same cooling process. If we were to suffer a shut down of the grid and those power plants could not get a continuouse supply of disel, yup country wide Fukushima, hundreds of power plants could melt die. Symutaniously!!!

[morosity]

Scary thought! I found it odd that news coverage seemed to cease over the Fukushima case, lets hope it gets sorted soon.