US Sen. Wyden tours Fukushima Daiichi, reveals situation worse than reported, urges Japan to accept international assistance

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, recently donned a radiation suit and investigated firsthand the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. He reveals the situation is worse than reported, and is urging the Japanese Ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, to accept international assistance to address ongoing risks of catastrophic radioactivity releases, especially from the hundreds of tons of high-level radioactive waste stored in precarious pools vulnerable to earthquakes and tsunamis. Wyden has issued a press release, and posted his letter to the Japanese Ambassador.

In the letter, Wyden wrote: “The scope of damage to the plants and to the surrounding area was far beyond what I expected and the scope of the challenges to the utility owner, the government of Japan, and to the people of the region are daunting. The precarious status of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear units and the risk presented by the enormous inventory of radioactive materials and spent fuel in the event of further earthquake threats should be of concern to all and a focus of greater international support and assistance.” 

Wyden also wrote U.S. Energy Secretary Chu, Secretary of State Clinton, and NRC Chairman Jaczko, urging the full resources and expertise of the United States government be offered to Japan to prevent yet another catastrophic radioactivity release at Fukushima Daiichi due to a failed pool fire.

Please contact Sen. Wyden to thank him for his vital efforts, and contact Secretary Chu, Secretary Clinton, andChairman Jaczko, urging they do what Sen. Wyden calls for. You can also contact your U.S. Senators andRepresentative, to urge them to add their voices to Sen. Wyden's effort.

Tepco reveals 35 ton machine fell into Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 high-level radioactive waste storage pool

Kyodo News has reported that a camera lowered into the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 high-level radioactive waste storage pool has revealed that a 35 ton piece of equipment used to transfer irradiated nuclear fuel into and out of the pool fell in, most likely due to the massive hydrogren explosion which rubblized the reactor building in the earliest days of the catastrophe in mid March 2011.

"Heavy load drops" can punch holes in the sides or floors of pools, draining the cooling water away and causing a high-level radioactive waste fire. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2005, Robert Alvarez et al. in 2003, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2001, and Brookhaven National Lab in 1997 have long warned about such risks. The NRC study reported that 25,000 people could die of latent cancer fatalities up to 500 miles downwind of a pool fire. The Brookhaven study warned of the potential for 143,000 deaths.

No explanation is given for why it has taken Tepco 13 months to reveal this information. There is growing concern about the Unit 4 pool collapsing, which could lead to a catastrophic radioactivity release larger in size than what has already been disgorged by the three reactor meltdowns. But as this article above shows, Unit 3 is also at risk -- there is a lack of even basic information about its status, condition, and structural integrity.

"Fighting the Legacy of Enrico Fermi"

NRC file photo of Fermi 2Michael Leonardi of Occupy Toledo has published an essay in Counterpunch, re-run at Ecowatch, about the resistance to the Fermi nuclear power plant on the Lake Erie shoreline near Monroe, MI. Leonardi links to Beyond Nuclear's involvement in "Freeze Our Fukushimas" efforts to shutdown Fermi 2 (see photo, left), the largest Fukushima Daiichi twin GE Mark I reactor in the world, with around 550 tons of high-level radioactive waste stuck in its storage pool, more than Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 put together.

Leonardi also mentions the struggle to nip the proposed new "Fermi 3" reactor, a GE-Hitachi "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR), in the bud. Beyond Nuclear's website hosts the compiled submissions by the the environmental coalition resisting Fermi 3, submitted in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario (CEA), Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter -- represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge -- continue to officially intervene against Fermi 3 in the NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board proceeding.

The Fermi nuclear power plant represents an international risk, as reflected by CEA's involvement: Ontario is a short 8 miles away from Fermi, across Lake Erie. In addition, the Walpole Island First Nation is only 50 miles away.

Toledo Blade editorializes in support of consideration of renewables as alternative to Davis-Besse license extension

The Toledo Blade, which in the past has often taken pro-nuclear editorial positions, has nonetheless come out in support of a binational environmental coalition's contention that renewables, such as wind and solar power, should be considered as an alternative to a 20 year license extension at the problem-plagued Davis-Besse atomic reactor, with its cracked containment. Beyond Nuclear authored a wind power contention in Dec., 2010 that won admission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) for a hearing on the merits; the ASLB likewise admitted a solar photovoltaic (PV) contention authored by the environmental coalition's expert witness, Dr. Al Compaan, an emeritus professor and former chair of the University of Toledo physics dept., a PV inventer. However, the full five member NRC Commission recently sided with FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company's appeal of the ASLB rulings, and overrode them, rejecting any consideration of renewable alternatives. The NRC Commission did the same thing at Seabrook, NH, where Beyond Nuclear authored a contention that offshore wind power in the Gulf of Maine could replace that atomic reactor's electrical output. Terry Lodge of Toledo is the attorney representing the environmental coalitions in both proceedings.

Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario is a member of the environmental coalition opposing the Davis-Besse license extension, just as it is opposing the Fermi 3 new reactor proposal in southeast Michigan. Both the Davis-Besse and Fermi nuclear power plants are located on the Lake Erie shore, not far from the Canadian border.

"Fukushima...radiation so high -- even robots not safe"

Beyond Nuclear's Kevin Kamps appeared on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" last Thursday, discussing a recent U.S. Geological Survey report on Fukushima fallout across the U.S., as well as the latest revelations of fatal radiation dose levels inside Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2.

Earlier that same day, Kevin also debated Victor Murogov, the Head of the International Nuclear Education Center and Professor at the National Research Nuclear University in Moscow. The debate was aired on the Voice of Russia Radio. The discussion revolved around the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea, which President Obama attended last week.