Japan fumbled
| C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S |
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| Jonathan De la Cruz |
Lost in the din of frantic global efforts to ease the immense pain on the Japanese people of the natural disasters which struck the country two weeks ago, is the possibility of yet another disaster, this time entirely man made, which may visit not just Japan but the world as well. It is the increasingly unsolvable problems visiting the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) which may be better buried in tons of concrete rather than be activated at all. Properly executed, that final solution will put all concerns about the plant’s integrity to rest and ease whatever apprehensions of radioactive risks which may spread even beyond Japanese shores. To think that the Japanese are supposed to have such a rigorous and no nonsense safety consciousness! It appears from the record that they were uncharacteristically lax on this plant. They fumbled.
No less than the government funded Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (Jnesco) has certified that the plant whose first of six reactors was commissioned 30 years ago in 1971 had the “highest rate of accidents of any big Japanese nuclear power plants for the period 2005-2009.” On Nov. 28, 2008, Tepco reported that “water oozed from the casing of two vales in the plant’s hydraulic system” while on April 3, 2009, “irregularities were found with the control rods at the facility’s No. 3 reactor.”.... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110330com4.html
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