What we don’t know won’t hurt us?

We’re just about a month out from the one-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that precipitated nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi.  

It bears mentioning again that, while any effort to apply lessons learned  to current nuclear operations seems to be advancing without appreciable urgency, there is plenty of evidence that industry and government agents in Japan and here at home hastily circled the wagons even before the affected population had been warned to evacuate.  

The grisly truth is that, in the aftermath of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history, protecting economic interests has been given a far higher priority than human health and safety.

In a February 2 interview conducted by CCTV host Margaret Harrington, Maggie Gundersen of Fairewinds Assoc. points out that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission…that’s our guys…knew how serious the situation at Fukushima was, fully nine days before residents were ordered to evacuate!

So effective has the effort been to deflect negative messaging from Fukushima that, if one does not go well out of one’s way to find information about radiation impacts, or even the progress of stabilization efforts at the devastated facility, one is unlikely to know anything at all.

We are dependent on the efforts of independent investigators, like Fairewinds Associates, who, facing a desperate information void, have seized the initiative to do the thankless work of analysis and public education that so-called “regulatory” agencies and governments have completely abdicated.

Shining the Light on the Triple Meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi from Fairewinds Energy Education on Vimeo.

Those in the capacity of decision makers would much rather present a benign picture in the short term so that as much economic “hay” can be made on the nuclear nickel as possible.  They will leave it to a later brain-trust to confront whatever legacy of disease and devastation lies ahead, once it is no longer deniable.

On January 7, none other than the Economist carried this observation about the first government commissioned report concerning Fukushima, and how unlikely it is that the nuclear energy cabal will embrace any of its lessons:

Such reports are, after all, confidence-building exercises. They are meant to reassure the public that, by exposing failures, they will help to prevent them from being repeated. In the case of Fukushima Dai-ichi there is still plenty to be nervous about. Although the government declared on December 16th that the plant had reached a state of “cold shutdown”, much of the cooling system is jerry-rigged and probably still not earthquake-proof. On January 1st a quake temporarily caused water levels to plunge in a pool containing highly radioactive spent-fuel rods…Until somebody in power seizes on the report as a call to action, its findings, especially those that reveal sheer ineptitude, suggest that the public has every reason to remain as scared as hell.

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While we’re on the subject, I wanted to share an interesting website that a friend passed along to me.  Together with a roster of articles on current technical issues at nuclear plants all over the world, it includes this live, rather chilling video window on the wreckage of Fukushima Daiichi.  Notice how the only sound is the whistling wind and the whitecaps breaking against the nuclear shoreline.  Brrr!

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.

3 thoughts on “What we don’t know won’t hurt us?

  1. Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012

    Boric acid to prevent recriticality-Reactor No. 2 heats up, gets more water

    Workers at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant increased the amount of water injected into reactor 2 on Tuesday to the highest level since the plant achieved cold shutdown in December as concerns grew over rising temperatures at the bottom of the pressure vessel.

    […] Tepco said it increased the amount of injected water, some of which contained boric acid, at 4:24 a.m. Tuesday. Reactor 2 is now being cooled with 13.5 tons of water per hour, up from 10.5 tons. The boric acid is being used to prevent a sustained nuclear chain reaction, or recriticality.

    http://www.japantimes.co.jp/te

  2. First new US nuke since 1978

    As they slow walk the Fukushima lessons learned safety report through their maze the NRC will approve construction of two new nuke power plants for Southern Georgia today.

    This sets up $8.3 billion in federal taxpayer loan guarantees issued by the Energy Dept. in 2010.

    Rep Markey (D-Mass) says : “I think we are putting our taxpayer money at unnecessary risk given the unresolved safety issues and the lessons that have been learned from Fukushima,

    http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wi

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