Japanese national government devotes mere $500 million to radioactive "soggy mess" at Fukushima Daiichi

As reported by the Washington Post, Japanese Prime Minister Shizo Abe has pledged a mere $500 million towards stabilizing the leakage of highly radioactive water into the ground and ocean at the wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant site.

Critics regard such a small amount as "chicken feed" or "chump change."

As pointed out by Fairewinds Associates, Inc.'s Chief Engineer, Arnie Gundersen, "clean-up" and decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi site itself will likely cost around $100 billion, while "clean-up" of contaminated regions of Fukushima Prefecture and adjacent prefectures could easily cost an additional $400 billion. So, Abe's pledge of half a billion dollars is very small, compared to that half a trillion dollar price tag!

As the article reports:

'...Last month, Tepco admitted that one storage drum had sprung a leak. Spiking radiation levels around the tanks have raised fears that others could be leaking as well. But it is hard to tell: Water levels in the tanks have not been measured on a regular basis, said Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, at a news conference Monday.

“We believe that management of and monitoring of tanks represents a serious problem,” Tanaka said, adding that regulators have given Tepco “strict instructions” to strengthen its oversight...'.

Tanaka (pictured, above left with U.S. NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane exchanging documents after a signing ceremony with her counterpart at the newly established Japan Nuclear Regulation Authority in Japan in December, 2012; the documents established, among other activities, a joint steering committee between the two regulatory agencies) recently compared the situation at Fukushima Daiichi to a "house of horrors."

Radiation levels at Fukushima 18 times higher than previously admitted to

From The Guardian, September 1st: "Radiation levels 18 times higher than previously reported have been found near a water storage tank at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing fresh concern about the safety of the wrecked facility.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said radiation near the bottom of the tank measured 1,800 millisieverts an hour – high enough to kill an exposed person in four hours."

The stricken reactors have been leaking radioactively contaminated water into the ocean since the disaster first began on March 11, 2011, with unknown consequences to sea life and the surrounding ecosystems.

TEPCO has finally admitted that  a toxic mixture of groundwater and water being used to cool melted fuel lying deep inside the damaged reactors was seeping into the sea at a rate of about 300 tonnes a day. There is little confidence left in the utility's ability to manage the current crisis let alone the future prolonged decommissioning process.

The Guardian reported that: "The high radiation levels announced on Sunday highlighted the dangers facing thousands of workers as they attempt to contain, treat and store water safely, while preventing fuel assemblies damaged in the accident from going back into meltdown.

"Japan's nuclear workers are allowed an annual accumulative radiation exposure of 50 millisieverts. Tepco said radiation of 230 millisieverts an hour had been measured at another tank, up from 70 millisieverts last month. A third storage tank was emitting 70 millisieverts an hour, Tepco said. Radiation near a pipe connecting two other tanks had been measured at 230 millisieverts."

Pictured: A TEPCO employee works around the water tanks. . Photograph: Noboru Hashimoto/EPA.

"Why Fukushima is worse than you think"

In a blog special to CNN, Paris-based independent international consultant on energy and nuclear policy, Mycle Schneider, calls for an International Task Force Fukushima to provide the Japanese government and nuclear safety regulatory agency with keenly needed help at the wrecked, leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Schneider calls on the international community to "muster the will to put their own interests aside, and help Japan conquer the denial that is risking catastrophe." He is the coordinator and lead author of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report.

"The buck stops at the prime minister's desk" re: the worsening Fukushima Daiichi nuclear crisis

In an op-ed published in the Japan Times, Andrew DeWit, a professor in the School of Policy Studies, Rikkyo University, and Dr. Christopher Hobson, a research fellow at the Institute for Sustainability and Peace, United Nations University, Tokyo, argue that "the buck stops at the prime minister’s desk" in regards to the worsening crisis at Fukushima Daiichi. They urge Japanese Prime Minister Abe to take control over the decommissioning, to try to deal with the 300 tons per day of radioactively contaminated water flowing into the ocean, as well as the impending, high-risk removal of hundreds of tons of irradiated nuclear fuel from the precarious Unit 4 storage pool.

Update on September 14, 2013 by admin

The two authors expanded their op-ed, above, into a much longer and more detailed article in Truthout, with full footnotes, entitled "Abe at Ground Zero: The Consequences of Inaction at Fukushima Daiichi."

EcoReview Fukushima Daiichi Update with Fairewind's Arnie Gundersen

Arnie Gundersen is featured on EcoReview’s panel of experts to discuss Fukushima Daiichi.  Host Tom Harvey poses the question, what has, is and will likely will happen and what options there are to remedy this cataclysmic event? Other featured experts include David Pu’u, CDO of Blue Ocean Sciences, Eddie Leung, CEO of Secured Environment, and Dr. Andrea Neal, CEO of the Ocean Lovers Collective.