I attach great importance to this message.
According to the Asahi News Paper of 27 January,
Tepco is reported to envisage the removing the nuclear fuel debris from the Unit 2 only in 2021.
In the meantime,as Professor Shuzo Takemoto,Honorary Professor of Kyoto University, warns (cf.P.S. below), intensity 7class earthquakes are certain to take place, which could bring about the collapse of the building of the Unit 2.
The number of nuclear fuel rods in the cooling pools are as follows; Unit 1— 392, Unit 2—615,Unit 3—566.
As Professor Akira Hasegawa( Maxwell Prize Winner) points out,Japan is at a loss what to do.
International cooperation is of absolute necessity.
The mobilization of human wisdom on the widest possible scale is urgently needed.
Prime Minister Abe,asked in the Parlamentary deliberations on 25
January,surprisingly reconfirmed his assertion "under control".
It is now entirely up to the international community to reassure the safety of the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020.
Please allow me to count on your increased understanding and support.
With highest regards,
Mitsuhei Murata
Former Ambassador to Switzerland
P.S. Professor Takemoto’s warning.
The earthquake of 22 November 2016 off the coast of the Fukushima Prefecture (M7.4) and the earthquake of 28 December 2016 in the Northern part of the Ibaragi Prefecture are situated in the aftershock area of the 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of T?hoku. In this area, we must foresee a number of magnitude 7 class earthquakes. Consequently, we cannot exclude the possibility of intensity 6 and intensity 7 earthquakes befalling the Fukushima Daiichi. What is most dreaded is what could happen to the Unit 2 whose pressure vessel contain a large volume of nuclear fuel debris(615 fuel rods).
This pressure vessel has endured the sudden change of temperature and pressure in the accident of March 2011. However, in view of its possible weakening due to irradiation, it will be destroyed,if it should meet with a big earth tremor, and scatter the remaining nuclear fuel and its debris, making the Tokyo metropolitan area uninhabitable. The Tokyo Olympic 2020 will then be utterly out of the question.