The Accident is not over.
In Fukushima, the cauldrons are still bubbling, and only a massive and expensive effort of over 5000 people is holding it at bay, while engineers work, in an environment so radioactive that it even disables robots, to gather and store the deadly debris of history’s worst nuclear accident.
It’s one thing to know this, (I did), but quite another to see it on video in such detail as Miles O’Brien provides here in part 1 of a PBS report.
The sheer scale of the remediation effort at Fukushima is mind exploding, and to realize that it will have to be ongoing for decades, if not centuries, is sobering in the extreme.
As of 2022, costs have reached 82 billion US dollars, and could eventually crack one trillion.
The time required will be measured in centuries.
Around 12.1 trillion yen ($82 billion) has already been spent to deal with the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, according to sources at the Board of Audit of Japan.
That means more than half of the government’s total estimated cost of 21.5 trillion yen, including compensation payments and reactor decommissioning expenses, has been used in the 11 years since the meltdowns occurred.
However, the nuclear decommissioning process is not going smoothly, and there are fears that the planned discharge of treated radioactive water from the plant into the sea could damage the reputations of the disaster-affected areas.
Expenses could still expand, and the BOA on Nov. 7 asked the government to review its projected cost.
The BOA also asked the government to explain how the public would bear the cost if it is reviewed.
The government, however, said the cost will likely not increase.
“We sincerely listen to various views but at least at the moment, we do not believe the cost will surpass the estimated figure, and we do not plan to review it,” said an official for the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.
The BOA studied costs incurred up until fiscal 2021.
That’s just one, there are hundreds. All of who will need to be maintained long after we are gone.
Or gone Mad Max …
The weekly Nuclear Hotseat podcast is a good source of additional information on Fukushima and the plans to dump radioactive water into the ocean:
NH #629: SPECIAL: Japan’s Radioactive Fukushima Water Dump – Media Propaganda, Report from South Pacific https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/japan-radioactive-fukushima-water-dump/
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Ah, this is the first time I’m hearing of Nuclear Hotseat: International Source On All Things Anti-Nuclear
The levels of relative risks for humans are crossing all of the time. The trick is to let one problem (GHGs) grow so big that others don’t seem like such a big deal.
This Nuclear Hotseat episode contains more information on radioactive tritium:
NH #628: IAEA OKs Japan’s Fukushima Radioactive Water Release + Ukraine Nuclear Disaster Imminent?https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/iaea-oks-fukushima-radioactive-water-dump/
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NH #619: The Antidote to Oliver Stone – “Fukushima Disaster,” Excellent New Film Exposes Core Nuclear Lies https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/antidote-oliver-stone-fukushima-disaster/
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NH #611: SPECIAL – Fukushima at 12: Voices from Japan – On the Ground w/Beverly Findlay Kaneko https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/fukushima-at-12-voices-from-japan/
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NH #608: Fukushima Child Thyroid Cancer Rates Soar – Joseph Mangano
https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/fukushima-child-thyroid-cancer-rates-soar/
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NH #574: 11th ANNIVERARY! Tritium Radiation Lies – Dr. Ian Fairlie on Fukushima, Pilgrim
https://nuclearhotseat.com/podcast/11th-anniversary-tritium-radiation/
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The tritium in the Fukushima tanks is below drinking water standards. Countries protesting about its release – China and South Korea – routinely vent 3H2O from their own power plants – and tonnes, versus grams, of actually harmful substances, like mercury, from their non-nuclear plant smokestacks. The fishermen who protest so vigourously about harmless levels of tritium (the lowest-energy beta emitter there is) are quite OK with selling whale and dolphin meat with 12-24x Japan’s limits on mercury content.
in agreement here.