When the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, Japan was wrecked by a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami back in March, 2011, the four reactors were severely damaged. The critical cooling systems suffered catastrophic breakdown. The radioactive fuel in each reach reactor was uncovered, causing runway nuclear meltdown. Moreover, several of the spent fuel storage systems lost their cooling water. The result: highly radioactive material has been fully exposed to the environment for two years plus, with no end in sight.
TEPCO, the company behind the Fukushima reactor has consistently under-reported the extent of the calamity. The Japanese government and media, for the most part, have also understated the extent of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima.
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| Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Plant |
From the moment Fukushima went into meltdown, I have believed that it would go down as the worst environmental disaster in the history of the world. That's a pretty bold statement. After all, I don't qualify as a nuclear expert. The real 'nuclear experts' are all over the map on Fukushima. Those working in the nuclear industry mostly downplay the impact of the meltdown. But those experts who aren't making a living off of nuclear power tell a different story....a story much closer to the worst case view I find entirely compelling. There is no comparison with Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. Fukushima is orders of magnitude worse.
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| Fukushima |
A couple of points. First, the entire Fukushima facility is now highly contaminated with deadly radioactive materials and has been so since the initial reactor meltdowns. Second, the groundwater beneath the plant is contaminated and is spreading radioactive material through the water table. The people tasked with dealing with the disaster have been risking their lives trying to keep the situation from getting worse. One thing they have been doing since the beginning is to spray huge quantities of seawater on to the radioactive rumble to cool it and keep it from getting worse. Trouble is, that seawater becomes radioactive when exposed to the nuclear fuel. That radioactive water ends up back in the sea. There is no end in site for the flow of radioactive water into the ocean off the coast of Fukushima.
While TEPCO and the Japanese government continue to mislead and reassure the public, behind the scenes, they have no good answers for fixing the mess at Fukushima. A half-assed solution may be as good as it gets. It could take decades to implement even an inadequate response to Fukushima. Radioactive materials stay that way for thousands of years. Moreover, the cost of any response, including one that is half-assed, is an off-the-scale, bottomless pit.
It's just amazing to me that two years plus into this ongoing calamity at Fukushima, the nuclear industry has been able to keep a lid on the story.
Today, I ran across a radio interview that said that Fukushima has contaminated the biggest body of water on the planet. The entire Pacific Ocean is expected to end up with radioactive cesium contamination 5-10 times higher than at the peak of the nuclear bomb tests in the fifties. It won't end with the Pacific. Eventually, it will be all the world's oceans.
In the US, nuclear power is on life support. Just a few months ago, the San Onofre Nuclear Plant, which everyone who drives on Interstate 5 to San Diego passes by, was announced to be closing for good. Many countries have announced an end to their commitments to nuclear power, including France, which up to a few years ago was the world's greatest proponent of atomic energy.
I only hope that the true specter of Fukushima will be reported to the public more forthrightly as time goes on. In the US, the nuclear power lobby remains a formidable force with deep pockets. But they are trying to prop up something that cannot stand up to any kind of honest scrutiny. The only thing they have going for themselves is money. Sooner I hope than later, that 'radioactive' influence money is going to dry up.
Oh, on my contention that Fukushima is the worst human caused environmental disaster in the history the world. Anybody care to suggest an alternative? Maybe the reengineering of the Aral Sea? Maybe the tar sand mining in Alberta? The deforestation of the Amazon basin? The Exxon Valdez oil spill? Think about it; that one place, Fukushima; that one human failure is directly responsible for the large scale, ongoing radioactive contamination of the Pacific and eventually all of the world's oceans. Am I overstating things? I can only hope so.
