Why the Fukushima disaster is worse than Chernobyl

Some scientists say Fukushima is worse than the 1986 Chernobyl accident, with which it shares a maximum level-7 rating on the sliding scale of nuclear disasters.

This nation has recovered from worse natural – and manmade – catastrophes. But it is the triple meltdown and its aftermath at the Fukushima nuclear power plant 40km down the coast from Soma that has elevated Japan into unknown, and unknowable, terrain. Across the northeast, millions of people are living with its consequences and searching for a consensus on a safe radiation level that does not exist. Experts give bewilderingly different assessments of its dangers.

But many experts warn that the crisis is just beginning. Professor Tim Mousseau, a biological scientist who has spent more than a decade researching the genetic impact of radiation around Chernobyl, says he worries that many people in Fukushima are "burying their heads in the sand." His Chernobyl research concluded that biodiversity and the numbers of insects and spiders had shrunk inside the irradiated zone, and the bird population showed evidence of genetic defects, including smaller brain sizes. "The truth is that we don't have sufficient data to provide accurate information on the long-term impact," he says. "What we can say, though, is that there are very likely to be very significant long-term health impact from prolonged exposure." More.

Tepco now says that Unit 3 blew up Unit 4 at Fukushima Daiichi

The shattered Unit 4, as it appeared on March 24, 9 days after its "mysterious" explosionIn the earliest days of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe, the prevailing storyline on the explosion which destroyed the Unit 4 secondary containment reactor building was that the high-level radioactive waste storage pool had boiled dry, its wastes had caught fire, explosive hydgrogen gas was generated, which then blew up the building. But as posted at Beyond Nuclear's website, at the end of May, a U.S. Dept. of Energy spokesman revealed that the actual culprit may have been the Unit 3 reactor meltdown. The Mainichi Daily News now reports that Tokyo Electric Power Company is asserting just that, that hydrogen gas from the Unit 3 meltdown(s), rather than being vented out the stack shared with Unit 4, flowed instead into the Unit 4 secondary containment reactor building, blowing it up. The likes of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and President Obama's and Energy Secretary Chu's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future will likely spin such news into a message of "pools are safe." This is not true. Fukushima Daiichi's pools storing high-level radioactive waste at Units 1, 2, 3, and 4 have had to be repeatedly re-filled with water, through various ad hoc, desperate, and dangerous means (such as failed helicopter water drops, as well as fire trucks, riot control water cannons, concrete pump trucks, etc. firing water from a radiologically safe(r) distance), due to the cooling water continually boiling away for lack of operable circulation systems.

42 incinerators in 7 prefectures of Japan test positive for radioactive dust and ash above regulatory limits

The Mainichi Daily News has reported that 42 incineration facilities in the prefectures of Tokyo, Chiba, Iwate and three other prefectures as well as Fukushima have radioactive dust and ash that violates federal regulations for disposal in ordinary landfills, the Japanese Environment Ministry announced on Saturday. The federal standard for disposal of radioactive ash and dust requires that it contain less than 8,000 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram. Yet, readings of 95,300 becquerels/kg have been detected in Fukushima; 70,800 becquerels/kg in Chiba; 30,000 becquerels/kg in Iwate; and 9,740 becquerels/kilogram was found in dust at an incineration plant in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward in June. A becquerel is defined as one radioactive disintegration per second. Thus, 8,000 radioactive distintegrations per second in just one kg (2.2 pounds) of dust or ash is a significant amount of hazardous radioactivity.

What went wrong at Fukushima Daiichi, and why it could happen at any atomic reactor in any country

In a video entitled "Why Fukushima Can Happen Here: What the NRC and Nuclear Industry Dont Want You to Know" posted at the Fairewinds Associates website, nuclear engineers Dave Lochbaum of Union of Concerned Scientists and Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds explain what went wrong at Fukushima Daiichi, then show how similar catastrophes can happen in the U.S., Germany, or any other country -- and not only in General Electric boiling water reactors of the Mark 1 containment design, but in any atomic reactor. The event, sponsored by C-10 and other environmental groups, took place in June 2011 at the Boston Public Library.

Fairewinds re-asserts severe damage in high-level radioactive waste storage pools at Fukushima Daiichi

In Fairewinds Associates' latest video entitled "Newly Released TEPCO Data Proves Fairewinds Assertions of Significant Fuel Pool Failures at Fukushima Daiichi," dated August 26th, Arnie Gundersen explains that Tokyo Electric Power Company's own documentation of radioactive cesium contamination of high-level radioactive waste pool water shows severe damage has occurred in the irradiated nuclear fuel stored there. Arnie bolsters his assertion that the high-level radioactive waste storage pool at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 is severely damaged by pointing to a recent high-resolution photo, shown here.