I am sending you a message sent to me from Mr.Mycle Shneider,who is quoted in the article of The Independent,shown in the attached site,
He calls upon the imternational community to be involved in the development of long-term problem-solving strategies,the challenge of the situation exceeding Japan’s capacity.
It goes without saying that the ongoing Fukushima crisis deserves greater attention and involvement of the international civil society.
Please allow me to count on your understanding and support.
Dear Mitsuhei,
thank you for your message. I can hardly comment on this as I’m already quoted in the original piece by The Independent.
However, while they did not misquote me, I think they have overblown the headline (as media do quite often).
I tried to make the point that a lot of the waste management on-site remains sketchy at best. This does not only concern the contaminated water, but specifically also the highly radioactive sludges that stem from the decontamination of water. Where are they? How are they conditioned? What will happen to them in case of severe weather events? This is part of the forgotten unsolved issues and a potential disaster to happen.
Concerning the hundreds of thousands of tanks—many of them still make-shift tanks that were not built to contain radioactive water in a salt-saturated atmosphere for years—I’m worried about a potential snow-balling effect, if even one of them collapses. This could release a large quantity of contaminated water to the environment in an uncontrolled manner. It could also mix with highly contaminated water in the basements and reach the ocean. As the ocean has no borders, it would have a global effect. This does not mean global apocalypse, but an effect that is not limited to Japan or its domestic waters.
The unprecedented complexity of disaster management of three molten reactor cores that will need to be cooled for decades far exceeds the capacity of a company like TEPCO that, as the name indicates, is a simple power generating company with no particular expertise in post-accident management.
The challenge of the situation also exceeds Japan’s capacity to deal with the problem and it is part of the responsibility of the international community to pro-actively search for involvement into the development of long-term problem-solving strategies.
I have said this immediately after 3/11 and my opinion has only been reinforced by consecutive reports of failures of TEPCO’s disaster mitigation strategy.
Best regards,
Mycle
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Dear Mycle,
Natural disasters surpassing prevision and imagination are increasingly happening
worldwide.
Your short comment on the attached information will be most valuable.
It will be disseminated widely.
I am seriously worried about powerful earthquakes and tonadoes befalling the Fukushima Daiichi that could bring about the dreaded collapse of the Unit 2 reactor building and the adjacent exhaust emission tower.
With warmest regards,
Mitsuhei