Posted on 09/10/2013 7:35:56 PM PDT by TexGrill
(Reuters) - Fukushima nuclear plant operator Tepco Electric's response to the world's worst atomic disaster in a quarter century has been called ad hoc and more concerned with cost than safety, but 30 months later, the utility is still in charge.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in the centerpiece of Tokyo's successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics, said he would be personally responsible for a plan to cope with the legacy of the March 2011 disaster in which a massive earthquake and tsunami caused triple meltdowns, spewing radiation and forcing some 160,000 residents to flee their homes.
A crisis over radiation-contaminated water at the plant has revived calls to put Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) into bankruptcy as a prelude to nationalizing the clean-up and shut-down of the reactors, but there is little political support for the idea given its potential fallout for financial markets, Tepco's creditors and other nuclear utilities.
With concerns over Tepco's ability to cope, policymakers are pondering ways to take the Fukushima shut-down off the utility's hands, perhaps through an agency along the lines of Britain's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Even that, though, faces hurdles, including the likely need for new legislation, clarity on the size of the bill for taxpayers and government liability, and working out the implications for Japan's other utilities.
That means, at least for now, the government may just end up pouring in more money, leaving Tepco in charge while stepping up official oversight.
"They haven't come up with any good idea yet," said one former government official, although he said various options were being discussed. "Abe is not shy about providing government support, but I don't think he's thinking about any radical change of the structure of this company," he said, referring to calls to put Tepco through bankruptcy procedures.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
They need to start relocating the used fuel rods if they haven’t already to some remote island for storage.
Then they need to slowly dismantle the whole damned thing using a combination of robots and terminally ill volunteers to get as many exploded fuel elements out of there as they can.
Then Japan needs to invest in thorium reactors so they can burn the damn high level fissile material down to inert nuclear ash.
But they really need to take one of their remote islands and create long term used fuel rod storage facility.
TEPCO needs to be nationalized. I know I am going to get a lot of flack from FReepers for saying that, but there has been far too much hanky-panky, ass-covering, mealy-mouthed bull feces from these people for me to trust them in this situation.
I want the Japanese government to pry those damn reactors out of TEPCOs incompetent fingers then I want an international commission of the world’s finest nuclear scientists and engineers brought in, given full and complete access to all the data, and a solid, workable engineering plan developed to deal with this crisis, which is arguably a worldwide concern.
I live less than 150 km from these reactors. I pay a TEPCO bill every month and have seen my electricity prices jump between 25 and 40 percent from the same time last year, and I am NOT HAPPY WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!
Turn Japan into Venezuela?
Be safe Ronin!
No, I am not talking about turning Japan into Venezuela! State control is always and should always be a last resort, but there are definitely times when the brown organic matter is so deep, when so many lives are at stake, when it’s clear that the people in charge of the private organization that is responsible for the mess are more concerned about covering their collective asses and avoiding embarrassment than doing what is necessary to solve the problem, that the state must step in.
TEPCO passed that position a good half year ago. I am hoping, indeed PRAYING, that the awarding the Olympics to Tokyo will open the way for some very pointed suggestions from other nuclear powers that perhaps it might be a good idea to let some more brains come in and check things out.
As I said, this problem effects the entire world. The world deserves a voice.
Was the problem ever that TEPCO needed to make a profit? Or was it that it was never able to keep its rates at a level where it could afford to do preventive maintenance? A lot of countries use private utilities as a piggy bank to buy votes.
There is a superb French/Japanese produced documentary (with English narration) that has been blacklisted in most of the world,
No Man’s Zone: Fukushima - The Day After
Full documentary available here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX11BTV4-NU
Information
A man wanders through the 20-kilometre exclusion zone around the stricken nuclear reactors at Fukushima. The cherry trees are in bloom and the natural surroundings make an idyllic impression. Radiation is invisible, yet a gaping emptiness looms where the tsunami engulfed streets and houses. The man is wearing normal clothing, just like the people still toughing it out here, for the time being at least. He occasionally encounters white “ghosts” in protective clothing, performing strange tasks. The zone in Fujiwara Toshi’s NO MAN’S ZONE is both a place and a mental state. A gradual disintegration began long before the destruction and devastation, a process defied for the most part by the old people our “Stalker” encounters. A voice accompanies the filmmaker’s wanderings, that of Armenian-Canadian actress Arsinée Khanjian, a voice from a place of exile, unfamiliar and sympathetic. NO MAN’S ZONE is a complex reflection on the relationship between images and fears, on being addicted to the apocalypse, on the ravaged relationship between man and nature. For the zone to be decontaminated and returned to the people, nature itself will have to undergo an amputation. Produced by Aliocha Films Tokyo and Denis Friedman Productions Paris.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.