Arnie Gundersen at the Japan National Press Club

Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen (pictured at left) of Fairewinds Associates in Vermont, who has become regarded as a regular, trusted expert on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Catrastrophe and other nuclear power matters by such national media outlets as CNN, just presented at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. Over 80 journalists were present. Arnie presented on various aspects of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi, including the ongoing risks associated with GE Mark I BWR atomic reactors. A video recording of Arnie's presentation and the question and answer session is viewable online at Fairewinds' website.

Head of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission admits country's regulations flawed

As reported by the Washington Post, the head of Japan's Nuclear Safety Commission had admitted in the aftermath of the Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe that the country's nuclear safety regulations are dangerously flawed and inadequate. Previous disregard for the risks of massive tsunamis is but one example. In another sign of deep incompetence, it is reported that the head of Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) lacked nuclear, technical, or scientific expertise himself, as did his staff. He largely "sat out" the critical initial weeks of the crisis, even lacking a hotline capability at his office.

However, indications in the article that U.S. nuclear safety regulations are far superior to Japanese regulations, or are somehow adequate to ensure nuclear safety, are false. Last summer, AP, for example, published a four part series on "Aging Nukes," showing how the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission weakens its safety regulations in order to allow old reactors to keep operating. The Davis-Besse Hole-In-the-Head fiasco near Toledo is but one of many examples of close-calls with disaster that have occurred in the past decade alone, due to NRC prioritization of industry profits over public safety. Anti-nuclear watchdogs in the U.S. have known about, protested, and resisted these sorts of short cuts on safety, and derelictions of duty, for decades.

Major seismic aftershock at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 could unleash 8 times Chernobyl's Cs-137

Robert Alvarez of the Institute for Policy Studies released the following message today:

"Here is a recent photo [left] of the Unit No. 4 at the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear ruins provided by Akio Matsumura. It is quite sobering.

The pool at Unit No. 4 contains 1,538 fuel assemblies, including a full core that was freshly discharged prior to the accident. 

Based on data from the U.S. Department of Energy, a spent fuel assembly from a typical boiling water reactor contains about 30,181 curies (~1.1E+12 becquerels) of long-lived radioactivity. So the Unit No. 4 pool contains roughly 49 million curies (~1.8E+18 Bq), of which about 40 percent is Cs-137.  (Source:  U.S. Department of Energy, Final Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada, 2002, Appendix A, Tables A-7, A-8, A-9, A-10, BWR/Burn up = 36,600 MWd/MTHM, enrichment = 3.03 percent, decay time = 23 years.)

The risk of yet another highly destructive earthquake occurring even closer to the Fukushima reactors has increased, according to the European Geosciences Union.http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/02/15/could-fukushima-daiichi-be-ground-zero-for-the-next-big-one/ This is particularly worrisome for Daiichi's structurally damaged spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4 sitting 100 feet above ground, exposed to the elements. Drainage of water from this pool, resulting from another quake could trigger a catastrophic radiological fire involving about eight times more radioactive cesium than released at Chernobyl."

In 2011, Alvarez published a report on the risks of high-level radioactive waste pool storage in the U.S., in light of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Catastrophe.

Head of Japan Atomic Energy Commission blames flawed GE design as cause of Fukushima’s triple meltdown and US expert says they may have blown their lids

American’s should take notice to a recent Associated Press interview (02/14/2012) with Shunsuko Kondo, the head of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission, who blames the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe on the design of the General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactor.  Mr. Kondo had been commissioned by Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan to write a secret worst case scenario for the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear disaster including possibly evacuating Tokyo’s 35 million people, 140 miles away, out of harm’s way.  Mr. Kondo “acknowledged that the design for Fukushima Dai-Ichi had been faulty and he never expected a Chernobyl-style disaster.”

What is now described as Japan’s Chernobyl could be the “American Chernobyl” at any one of the 23 Mark I reactors still operating in the United States.

Beyond Nuclear has repeatedly warned that these 1960’s vintage reactors are accidents waiting to happen. The warnings about the Mark I design vulnerabilities  began in 1972 when a top safety official then with the United States Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Steven Hanauer,  urged the federal regulator to “adopt a policy to discourage further use of the pressure suppression containment system” because the Mark I containment system is too small volumetrically to contain a severe nuclear accident and the catastrophic release of radioactivity. That warning only has more meaning today with these reactors now 40 years older than ever. Shut them down.

More recently, Arnie Gunderson of FaireWind Associates, a nuclear expert in the public interest, theorizes and explains that the over heated GE Mark I reactor pressure vessels at Fukushima Dai-Ichi then over-pressurized and literally lifted the lid off the reactor vessel allowing explosive hydrogen gas and the radioactive contents to vent into the reactor building. The hydrogen gas found an ignition source and blew the containments and the reactor buildings apart. 

Fukushima Nuclear Plant at High Risk for Major Earthquake

A new study shows that last year's catastrophic earthquake in Japan caused a seismic fault close to the Fukushima nuclear plant to reactivate, meaning another major earthquake could strike the area again, this time even closer to the Fukushima plant.

The new information (pdf) is published in European Geosciences Union's journalSolid Earth.