For the nuclear bureaucrat, lying seems to be as essential
and continuous a human process as breathing.
I am not averse to the argument that a greater reliance on
nuclear energy, despite its massive risks, might provide an alternative future
preferable to being cooked to death by greenhouse gases.
But I must say that I do not think that nuclear energy
should be in the hands of the current crew under the current system.
The nuclear agenda is largely in control of the legacy
nuclear powers, whose dominance is enshrined in the imbalanced arrangement of
the Non-Proliferation Treaty and its creature, the IAEA. The United States and Russia, in particular,
are nuclear horror shows when it comes to the waste, haste, shortcuts, and
accidents inseparable from the birth of nuclear science in the crisis
atmosphere of a world war and ensuing Cold War.
Neither of these nations, I would aver, is particularly
interested in a new, more conservative model of radiation risk baselining that
might impose onerous economic, political, and public health costs on their
governments.
The Japanese government (which, under Prime Minister Abe is
set on nuclear power as a strategic national initiative) and Tokyo Electric
Power Corporation (TEPCO) are pretty much cut from the same cloth.
Prime Minister Abe, in order to secure a key Japanese
government priority, the 2020 Olympics, had this exchange with the IOC in
September 2013 about the situation at the crippled nuclear power station at
Fukushima:
"Let me assure you the situation is under control," [Abe] said.
"It has never done or will do any damage to Tokyo."
Abe replied decisively when pressed by veteran Norwegian IOC member Gerhard Heiberg over Fukushima.
"You should read past the headlines and look at the facts," he said.
"The contaminated water has been contained in an area of the harbour only 0.3 square kilometres big.
"There have been no health problems and nor will there be. I will be taking responsibility for all the programmes with regard to the plant and the leaks."
Fast-forward to April 20, 2014, courtesy of Japan Times:
“It’s embarrassing to admit, but there are certain parts of the site where we don’t have full control,” Akira Ono told reporters touring the plant last week.…
It appears that Abe’s “under control” assurances were based, at worst, on shaky assurances from TEPCO that the Japanese government was in no mood to question in the crucial run up to the awarding of the Olympic bid, or at best
upon the rather unsophisticated idea that TEPCO would contain the contaminated
water in tanks, so it wouldn’t reach the harbor, until some other more
permanent solution got worked out.
Lots and lots of tanks.
The 1,000 tanks [already “approaching capacity”] hold 440,000 tons of contaminated water. Some 4,500 to 5,000 workers, about 1,500 more than a half year ago, are trying to double the capacity by 2016.
The permanent solution has been slow in coming.
Add to the burgeoning storage tank farm the problems of
radiation-averse contract workers hastily constructing and piping tanks and the
inevitable problems of leaks, mis-routing, and overflows. Add the difficulty in getting the balky liquid
processing system up and running. Add
the challenges of trying out the new science of freezing a gigantic underground
wall of ice to keep water from the ocean.
Add the fact that 400 tons of groundwater flow through the site every
day, and after TEPCO struck a deal with the local fishermen to dump 100 TPD
into the ocean, it turns out that the water might be too contaminated to dump,
anyway.
There are many ways to describe the contaminated water
situation at Fukushima. “Under control”
is not the most accurate. “Fighting a
holding action for the next 30-40 years” as the physics of radionucleide decay
ineluctably reduces the danger (and Abe and his promises to take responsibility
have entered LDP Valhalla) is perhaps a better description.
“Abe lied Tokyo’s way in the 2020 Olympics” is also not complete
hyperbole.
With this context, it is not terribly surprising that
lawyers for sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan consider TEPCO a
target-rich environment for the lawsuits they are filing to claim redress for
TEPCO’s alleged negligence in the matter of the plume of radioactive material
that the Ronald Reagan sailed under and, thanks to the unfortunate circumstance
of the downwash of a snowstorm, into, while conducting relief operations off
the east coast of Japan after the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011.
Their claims have been shrugged off and under-reported in
the US and Japan on the grounds that the radiation exposure was so minor it
could not have caused any health problems.
I don’t buy it, and not just because there is a predisposition in the
nuclear industry to shade the truth.
There are good reasons to believe that radiation doses were
not—could not be-- accurately measured, and that valuable science on the
extensive negative health outcomes for radiation workers, derived particularly study
of the vast army of Chernobyl liquidators, has not been properly addressed, and
a thoroughgoing rethinking of the scientific orthodoxy of radiation sickness
and of the global nuclear regulatory apparatus should precede any new wave of
nuclear power plant construction.
I addressed the issue of radioactive contamination of the
USS Ronald Reagan and its crew in an article for the CounterPunch monthly
magazine, “Fukushima’s Nuclear Shadow: Fallout Over the USS Reagan.” To illustrate the USS Reagan situation, I also
discusses little-known elements of the Chernobyl disaster, and the story behind
one of the most serious episodes of radioactive contamination from nuclear
testing in the United States—in Albany, NY, of all places.
It is, I can say with some confidence, an eye-opening read.
CounterPunch has kindly made it available as an inexpensive offprint. The link for purchase is here.
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