More Nuclear Absurdities: Tepco Denies Physics

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Richard Wilcox, Contributor

Can you believe this? What are these lunatics raving about? Nuclear expert, Arnold Gundersen, recently visited Japan to discuss the dangers of the Unit 4 spent fuel pool at the Fukushima no. 1 nuclear power station. He talked with Japan’s politicians, with Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), and with concerned citizens (1).

Most readers will be aware of the fact that the fuel pool is full of highly radioactive fuel rods, which if exposed to air, will burn and release massive amounts of radiation. This remark in the Japan Times jumped off the page and was like getting smacked on the side of the head with a wet mackerel.

Gundersen: 'I told Tepco that while I realized they hoped and believed that there will always be water in the nuclear fuel pool, I had to ask whether or not they had (already prepared and stationed) any chemicals to put out a nuclear fuel pool fire in the event they were wrong. Tepco's response was that there was nothing in the fuel pool that could burn, a statement I find appalling.' (emphasis added)

Their statement is not appalling: it is 100 percent totally absurd. 

The Nuclear Mafia Derails Democracy in Japan

End of the day, factory whistle cries, Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes. - Bruce Springsteen, "Factory" (1)

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Richard Wilcox

“Bring us the living dead. People no one will miss.” - Fukushima official’s request to Yakuza (2)

“TEPCO's involvement with anti-social forces and their inability to filter them out of the work-place is a national security issue ... Nuclear energy shouldn't be in the hands of the yakuza. They're gamblers and an intelligent person doesn't want them to have atomic dice to play with.” - Japanese Senator (3) 

The technological issue of nuclear energy is intertwined with the exploitation of human labor in a hierarchy of interests, and how human labor is expended is an economic and moral issue. The Grand Scientific Project from the time of Francis Bacon up to the Manhattan Project of Oppenheimer and Fermi has been a dangerous gamble for humanity even though the advertised purpose is that progress is good. 

The exploitation of labor at nuclear plants depends on the tools of social engineering, of government, mass media and schools. This is the hidden and shameful side of today’s materialist society and belies our complicity in a criminalized culture. 

Never Ending Loads of Disinformation From the Liars at Tokyo Electric Power Company

Richard Wilcox
Activist Post

One thing that Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) can be relied upon for: a never ending stream of disinformation with cesium laden piles of putridity.

Firstly, there is the matter of the Unit 4 spent fuel pool, that many experts claim could collapse in a major earthquake leading to massive releases of radiation.

When I sent the story written by Japanese Diplomat, Akio Matsumura, to a Japanese professor I know whose focus is international relations, the tenure-track professor dismissed it as “tabloid journalism.” Talk about a nation with its focus on its own navel, they don’t even know what danger they are in despite the 3/11 catastrophe.

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.

TEPCO Has Scandal-Plagued Past

photo: yoppy on Flickr

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TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company), which operates the failing nuclear power plants at Fukushima, has a history of scandals associated with its nuclear power operations.   In 2002, one set of such scandals became so severe that the president, vice president and chairman of the company all resigned in disgrace.  Most disturbing in this regard is that the scandal related to TEPCO hiding evidence of cracks in the containment vessels of their nuclear reactors.  Also possibly related to the current crisis is one report I have found of Toshiba providing faulty gauges that are used in monitoring the reactor coolant systems.

TEPCO is widely reported to be the largest utility company in the world that is not owned by a government entity.  According to this undated profile and history, it had annual revenues of nearly $60 billion in 2004 and over 50,000 employees.  The Fukushima Daiichi complex where the current crisis is underway was TEPCO’s first nuclear facility:

TEPCO located its nuclear power plants far from the crowded capital region, on the coast of Fukushima prefecture to the north, the service region of its longtime partner, the Tohoku Electric Power Company. By 1979, five further BWR reactors had been added to the Fukushima No. 1 complex. The company now used its own technology and contracted construction to other Japanese corporations that were experts in the field. Despite potential earthquake hazards that could result in catastrophic events at nuclear power facilities, nuclear power began gaining ascendancy, mainly to reduce air pollution. In 1970, the government legislated severe controls on air, land, and water pollution. An Environmental Agency on the American model emerged in 1971. The oil crisis of 1973 to 1974 reinforced commitment to a nuclear future.

Then, after further expansion of nuclear production, scandal struck:

TEPCO completed construction on the largest nuclear plant in the world in 1997. This was achieved despite public sentiment in Japan, which remained hostile towards the development of nuclear power due to several fatal accidents and scandals. According to a March 2000 Business Week article, nuclear power accounted for nearly 35 percent of Japan’s electricity. In fact, for much of the 1990s, Japan’s industry had aggressively focused on shifting from expensive and polluting coal-fired plants to nuclear power. Due to concerns over the safety of these nuclear facilities, Japan’s government was forced to rethink its expansion efforts, cut back on its nuclear development plans, and find alternative sources of power. Nevertheless, it hoped nuclear power would be supplying over 40 percent of Japan’s energy needs by 2011.

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