Can you imagine what respectable people who attend conferences and wear suits and ties would have said of someone like me if I went on a campaign to alert people of the disaster that awaited Japan pre-March 2011? I would have been completely ignored or laughed at as a Cassandra and conspiracy nut! So were many sincere anti-nuclear activists at the Citizens Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo.
Now we have to attend to the matter of Tepco’s arrogant stupidity, snideness and snottiness. On April 26, 2012, Tepco attempted to refute claims by Arnie Gunderson and other nuclear experts that the Unit 4 fuel pool building was tilting. Tepco stated that "[t]he No. 4 reactor building is not tilted and it, including the storage pool, will not be destroyed by a quake" (1).
Yet, very recently we learned from NHK and Tepco itself that the Unit 4 building is less stable than previously thought. NHK, the conservative government-run news station reports of “Tilted walls found at Fukushima No.4 reactor” which is different than the entire building being tilted, but does indicate serious problems (2).
Tepco itself has admitted that the Reactor 4 bulge is worse than previously announced. The Fukushima Diary website reports that “[t]he South-West corner of reactor 4 building turned out to be bulged” and leaning outward. This clearly contradicts Tepco’s earlier illogical stance quoted above and analyzed and debunked elsewhere (3; 4; 5).
There is more evidence of contradictions from Tepco (i.e., the Nuclear Village), who appear to run the Japanese government, based on statements made by Tepco in a recent news report, versus what the government has stated regarding the speed to which Tepco will remove the fuel rods from the badly damaged Unit 4 building. Perhaps international pressure along with vociferous anti-nuclear domestic protests are working to some extent, given the following report:
Workers at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will begin removing fuel rods from a damaged reactors a year ahead of schedule, a government minister said June 21, a move to address concerns about the risk of a new quake that could cause a further accident and scatter more radioactive debris. ‘We would like to start taking out undamaged fuel this year. Preparation is now under way,’ Japan's nuclear crisis minister, Goshi Hosono, told Reuters in an interview (6).
However, in the recent news report aired on June 25, 2012, by ABC Australia (7), we learn from the Tepco spokesman that they have no plans to remove the fuel rods until 2013.
Perhaps the word did not get out, or there is a disconnect between what the government is trying to promote versus what Tepco is deciding to do. It’s another case of the Keystone Kops (Tepco) playing a game of tiddlywinks with the Larry, Curly and Moe Outfit (Japan Government).
It is worth noting that while the ABC Australia reporters did an excellent job ofhighlighting the dangers of the Unit 4 spent fuel pool issue, Australia itself is a major exporter of uranium to Japan and part of the global nuclear mafia which benefits from the incredibly expensive and fantastically dangerous nuclear energy scam (8).
In another matter of Tepco’s bad behavior we learn that just as in the case of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, when BP was actually put in charge of the disaster (i.e., the arsonist investigating the fire), so too has Tepco taken over jurisdiction of Japanese waters:
Many Japanese are wary of the government’s assurances about test results, and Tokyo Electric has made people more suspicious by refusing to let independent experts survey waters inside the roughly 12-mile exclusion zone around the plant. ‘I don’t think anyone now would lie about radiation levels, but in the end, it’s the consumer who will decide,’ said Yoshiaki Saito, a wholesaler who handles tuna, crab and other seafood at the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. If nothing else, fish caught near Fukushima would probably fetch far lower prices (9).
Whether or not "Fukushima sea food [is] 'safe' for eating” or not, (10), this government survey of sea water near the TEPCO Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant shows very low levels of radiation detected. Apparently the charts convey a contradictory reading of “ND” meaning not detectable; while at the same time recording levels of 1.3 becquerals of cesium 134 per liter of sea water (11).
Richard Wilcox has a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies from a social science, holistic perspective. He teaches part time at a number of universities in the Tokyo, Japan area. His articles on environmental topics including the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been published at Counterpunch, Global Research, Dissident Voice and Rense.com. His interview with Jeff Rense is available at the website www.rense.com. Many of his articles are archived here:http://environmentalarmageddon.wordpress.com/?s=Richard+Wilcox
Read other articles by Richard Wilcox HERE
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