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End to Japan's nuclear crisis is years, a fortune away

15 Comments
By Charles Hutzler

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15 Comments
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What a bloody mess!

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If the tsunami had been bigger, the mess they have up there would have been dragged into the ocean, then the clean up would have been much easier.

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The quicker solution sounds like big profit for Toshiba, and big trouble for the contract workers (haken rodosya) who will have to perform most of the hard labour; absorbing radiation until a superviser with a hopefully working dosimeter and stopwatch decides that they have taken enough. Experiences from these itinerant workers at Fukushima and other Japanese reactor complexes suggest that they have little choice in the jobs, the dirty underside of an industry that revels in secrecy, and cares as little for their disposable work force as they do for their disposable protective garments.

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A lot of works is waiting for Japan.

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If the tsunami had been bigger, the mess they have up there would have been dragged into the ocean, then the clean up would have been much easier.

Right, and then Japan (plus neighbors) would have to deal with a sea-mobile Chernobyl.

This could be an opportunity for invention: robots that could withstand high radiation levels and could do the job of decontamination much better than humans. Sounds like a Japanese manga already!

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As far as I know, the USA already has these radiation proof robots etc..hopefully Japan will not be to proud to ask for help from the USA etc..We do not need this radiation out to Hawaii, California and beyond.

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Lets get real. Yes, it will take years before the thing is completely stable and sealed under a permanent cover.

But as the fuel gradually cools and ever more equipment is brought in, the situation will be less and less dramatic from now on.

They will still be working on no. 1 to 4 a year from now, but the hystery and the daily screaming headlines will be gone.

Mark my words.

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WilliB.

Don't often agree with you, but a very good post and very valid points

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What a nightmare. I guess the world has learned, though, that nuclear energy isn't safe. I hope all nearby residents move far, far away from the radiation. Perhaps we should start embracing green technologies.

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delrennich:

" Perhaps we should start embracing green technologies. "

If "green technologies" could supply the power we need for our lifestyle, we would have them already. Alas, wishful thinking.

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WilliB: Wrong! If the world had already fully embraced solar, wind, wave and geothermal power since the nuclear crisis at Three Mile Island or even Chernobyl, using nuclear power for electricity generation would already have been in a long term decline.

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I fail to see why robots would have such a tough job in the storage pool area, providing all their microchip gubbings is kept in a nearby lead lined shed. They could use special cameras for keeping track of what they are doing.

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I wonder if they still feel it is safe to have the fuel storage pool area above the reactor?

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I wonder how many nuclear incidents have occured in Japan... I, myself have now read of three including what is currently happening...

first, the Tokai Power Station’s No. 1 reactor, is 13 years into a 22-year process. Its fuel rods have been removed, and its turbines and other equipment are being dismantled while the reactor is isolated, its vents and ducts closed

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa is the biggest in the world and was hit by an over-spec earthquake not four years ago. Radioactivity leaked out into the air and the sea.. I believe that some of these reactors have been started up again.....

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i often wonder what technologies we could have if the billion+ dollar decommission (not to mention construction costs) for each future nuke power plant was spent on research for alternatives...

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