I have been searching in vain for meaningful updates on efforts to bring the Fukushima Daiichi reactors under control.  

At last there is an article in the Mainichi Daily News which seems to confirm what we have long suspected: that no progress is being made there whatsoever.

A freelance journalist,  Tomohiko Suzuki, has succeeded in working undercover, for over a month, at the power station from which little factual information has been allowed to escape up to now.

Mr. Suzuki reports that

“Absolutely no progress is being made” toward the final resolution of the crisis.

And that

companies including plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) (are) playing fast and loose with their workers’ radiation doses.

Furthermore,  no-entry zones that have been established around the crippled plants are inadequate, and have been designed more for convenience than to effectively ensure safety.

“(Nuclear) technology experts I’ve spoken to say that there are people living in areas where no one should be. It’s almost as though they’re living inside a nuclear plant,” says Suzuki.

Suzuki also reports that conflicts in technology between two reactor makers (Toshiba and Hitachi) that were enlisted to assist in finding a resolution at Fukushima, are crippling  rather than helping recovery efforts.

“much of the work is simply “for show,” fraught with corporate jealousies and secretiveness and “completely different” from the “all-Japan” cooperative effort being presented by the government.”

Before he was discovered and fired, Suzuki’s observations, including on-site photos he captured secretly with the aid of a pinhole camera, recorded a grim reality.  

According to Suzuki, public representations about progress at the crippled plant have largely been false; and shoddy and rushed workmanship, substandard materials and a culture of irresponsibility in the recovery efforts make more problems in the near future very likely.  

Furthermore, worker safety is routinely and grossly ignored.

‘”Working at Fukushima is equivalent to being given an order to die,” Suzuki quoted one nuclear-related company source as saying…”The Japanese media have turned away from this issue,”

To which we might add that, from our perspective, worldwide media is doing little to challenge the illusion that the disastrous events at Fukushima are over and done with.

Meanwhile, I am told by a knowledgable source, that a flotilla twice the size of Texas, comprised of radiation contaminated debris, is making it’s way with unexpected speed toward the western shores of the Hawaiian Islands.

Merry Christmas, Mr. President.