Fukushima apocalypse: Years of ‘duct tape fixes’ could result in ‘millions of deaths’

Even the tiniest mistake during an operation to extract over 1,300 fuel rods at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan could lead to a series of cascading failures with an apocalyptic outcome, fallout researcher Christina Consolo told RT.

Fukushima operator TEPCO wants to extract 400 tons worth of spent fuel rods stored in a pool at the plant’s damaged Reactor No. 4. The removal would have to be done manually from the top store of the damaged building in the radiation-contaminated environment.

In the worst-case scenario, a mishandled rod may go critical, resulting in an above-ground meltdown releasing radioactive fallout with no way to stop it, said Consolo, who is the founder and host of Nuked Radio. But leaving the things as they are is not an option, because statistical risk of a similarly bad outcome increases every day, she said.

RT: How serious is the fuel rod situation compared to the danger of contaminated water build-up which we already know about?

Christina Consolo: Although fuel rod removal happens on a daily basis at the 430+ nuclear sites around the world, it is a very delicate procedure even under the best of circumstances. What makes fuel removal at Fukushima so dangerous and complex is that it will be attempted on a fuel pool whose integrity has been severely compromised. However, it must be attempted as Reactor 4 has the most significant problems structurally, and this pool is on the top floor of the building.

It’s hard to imagine it getting much worse than it already is. Fuel pools went dry and fuel caught fire. Reactor buildings blown apart by hydrogen explosions. Reactors went full meltdown (and didn’t burn through the Earth to -I guess it would be Argentina?

It’s as bad as it gets right now and yet we aren’t all dead. In fact, it’s unlikely that anyone is going to die as a direct and indisputable result of this disaster.

That is not to make light of it. It is still one hell of a mess and a serious threat to public safety and health, not to mention it will cost a fortune to clean up. But the apocalyptic predictions of the anti nuke crowds never came to pass even in this worst of the worst case scenarios.

People have and will die as a result of Fukushima. The suppression of the immune system at doses distributed in some populated areas are sufficient to supress immune response as it has in other regions of the world. When Chernobyl occurred, a pro nuclear international study was done reporting “all diseases increased”. I did a double take and had to read more carefully - the human body has to repair the ongoing damage caused by radiation exposure and cannot continue to maintain the fight against other diseases so all instances go up. When that happens, some people die from diseases they would have survived with a functioning, unimpaired immune system.
Exposure to ionizing radiation does cause cancers and leukemia along with other diseases and this is known because of medical studies going back to the 50’s in the US and then studies on the exposed populations of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, the Ukraine etc. And the latest state-of-the-art research in the US continues to indicate that there is no safe threshold and people will sicken die. What the nuke industry hangs onto is that, while leukemia and cancer and other diseases increase in exposed populations - there is no test to show which patient died from cancer they were going to get from other sources and which patient would have been fine if not for radiation exposure from the nuclear power industry. You can say cancer increase x percent as a result of radioactive contamination - so far there is usually no way to group the deaths that would have occurred anyway and separate them from the Fukushima group. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is viewed by the nuclear power industry as full exoneration. This is the reason they insist that the only Fukushima deaths are the ones that are caused by Acute Radiation Sickness (heavy exposure and relatively fast death) and they wash their contaminated hands of ALL the other death and destruction of quality of life as people battle with endless illnesses and debility.
SO either the Japanese are not human or they are experiencing rising death (immune suppression) and will experience rising cancer rates etc.
People were right. Chernobyl is still killing people today because radioactive wastes remain damaging for many many generations. There are people living in contaminated regions today that are ill and will raise ill children because radiation exposure is damaging. It never was theoretical - it always was directly observable and damaging.

Someone upthread said “we’re all gonna die” to ridicule those of us who know what nuclear power is doing to the future of the US, of Japan and other countries. Radiation from Fukushima was soon detected in south America. Venting large quantities of materials proven to cause cancer, leukemia and a host of other illnesses (early dementia) on the world’s population is fine with the nuclear power industry because there is money in it for people and they have find lying and accusing people of being hysterical “works” to give them what they want. Their incompetence is vast but they aren’t held accountable. They think it’s “good work if you can get it.” Routinely threads like these reveal that no one in nuclear power ever bothered to learn actual effects of exposure to radiation but they sure are willing to invest in shouting down and ridiculing anyone who does study the medical science involved.

It depends on the difference between relative and absolute measurements. Natural exposures vary enormously due to mere geography, using relative measurements, due to radon from thorium in granite. Areas with really rocky ground and lots of basements can even have biologically significant exposures. Areas with alluvial soils don't have this problem at all.

Doomies emit alarm, mismeasurements, lies and ignorance concerning anything nuclear. OTOH, the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPOCO) does the same, substituting real radioactive danger for the alarm. They oughta send in all of TEPCO's senior management to clean up Fukushima with toothbrushes.

I did a double take and had to read more carefully - the human body has to repair the ongoing damage caused by radiation exposure and cannot continue to maintain the fight against other diseases so all instances go up.

Thanks for the informative write-up. Every time we go thru the airport, my wife wife opts out of scanning and asks for a pat-down. Because she is undergoing treatments for cancer and has received heavy doses of radiation already. The TSA goons always tell her there is no radiation from the scanners. My wife always has to protest several times and demand opting out. Telling people the scanners have no radiation shows ignorance on the part of the TSA workers, or they just don't care. A few years ago she received daily radiation treatments for a month (yes, daily), and she had to protect herself from exposure to any outside germs and disease, because her immune system was compromised. She lost her hair and was weak for some time. So minimizing other radiation exposure is a must.

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.