US Senator Calls for US & International Community to Address FDNPP, Particularly SFP4
Today, US Senator Ron Wyden, of Oregon, wrote a letter to the Japanese Ambassador Fujisaki expressing his grave concerns about the stability/safety of FDNPP following his plant tour last week. He urges Japan to accept international assistance to stabilize the plant, particularly the SFP #4, and has written additional letters to Secretary of State Clinton, Department of Energy Secretary Chu and NRC Chairman Jaczko asking them to account for what steps their respective agencies are currently taking to help resolve this ongoing crisis, and urging them to mobilize their respective and collective resources and expertise, along with the international community, to help Japan tame this beast.
The press release is linked below. It contains links to all 4 letters:
http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=2f18cd7b-8207-4315-8c...
Senator Wyden, whose home state of Oregon has the highest documented Fukushima Cs137 fall-out in the Lower 48 (thus far),
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/forum/218/kaltofens-soil-measurement-100x-uc...
and Senator Wyden includes this statement in his letter to the Ambassador, "Loss of containment in any of these pools, especially the pool at Unit 4 which has the highest inventory of the hottest fuel, could result in an even greater release of radiation than the initial accident."
From today's HuffPost -
From today's HuffPost - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-alvarez/the-fukushima-nuclear-dis_b...
"The stark reality, if TEPCO's plan is realized, is that nearly all of the spent fuel at the Da-Ichi containing some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet will remain indefinitely in vulnerable pools. TEPCO wants to store the spent fuel from the damaged reactors in the common pool, and only to resort to dry, cask storage when the common pool's capacity is exceeded. At this time, the common pool is at 80 percent storage capacity and will require removal of SNF to make room. TEPCO's plan is to minimize dry cask storage as much as possible and to rely indefinitely on vulnerable pool storage. Sen. Wyden finds that that TEPCO's plan for remediation carries extraordinary and continuing risk and sensibly recommends that retrieval of spent fuel in existing on-site spent fuel pools to safer storage... in dry casks should be a priority."
From today's Japan Times - http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120423a4.html
"We will disclose the plan by October or so, when the actual extraction of plutonium will take place," a federation official said.
Plutonium-thermal power generation involves the use of MOX, which is made with weapons-grade plutonium extracted from spent fuel, and is an important pillar of Japan's nuclear fuel recycling program."
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Could this be why after such a devastating nuclear accident that has exposed so many millions of individuals to dangerous levels of radiation TEPCO continues to choose high-risk options with great profit potential (spent fuel storage in open pools), rather than safer options (dry cask storage) that would protect the public from further radiation releases? I don't know the numbers involved in order to crunch them, but am guessing that plutonium extracted from all that spent fuel steaming away at FDNPP could provide the capital infusion TEPCO desperately needs?
Hideous that our world governments allow this to continue.
Senator Wyden on msnbc
Senator Wyden on msnbc interview.
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-daily-rundown/47073287/#47073287
BRAWM team - do you have any
BRAWM team - do you have any comments on the risks posed by the instable SFP #4?