Humankind’s Most Dangerous Moment: Fukushima Fuel Pool at Unit 4
There is no excuse for not acting. All the resources our species can muster must be focussed on the fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4.
Fukushima’s owner, Tokyo Electric (Tepco), says that within as few as 60 days it may begin trying to remove more than 1300 spent fuel rods from a badly damaged pool perched 100 feet in the air. The pool rests on a badly damaged building that is tilting, sinking and could easily come down in the next earthquake, if not on its own.
Some 400 tons of fuel in that pool could spew out more than 15,000 times as much radiation as was released at Hiroshima.
The one thing certain about this crisis is that Tepco does not have the scientific, engineering or financial resources to handle it. Nor does the Japanese government. The situation demands a coordinated worldwide effort of the best scientists and engineers our species can muster.
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http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2013/1985
As Arnie Gundersen has said, TEPCO has taken a bad situation and has consistently made it worse. They are not a professional engineering firm: they are reactor operators trying to clean up a mess they made as cheaply as possible. Time after time the Pros from Dover have told them what to do and they have IGNORED the advice as being too expensive...only to find they have to spend even MORE money to fix up their half-assed solutions.
It's like a bad "Rescue My Renovation" episode with the world's health on the line.
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Unfortunately, I think the world's response will be nothing to see here, move along. Maybe humans will finally terminally foul our nest. Been awhile coming, but we seem determined to reach that end point. 
it Happened! It's like everyone (even Japan's Closest Neighbors"
forgot that the whole Pacific/Atlantic Oceans are at Risk because of the Current Flows. And the Fish and Fowl and the inland waterways will all be subjected to this Radiation that could cause death and deformities and Cancers throughout our Oceans and into the low feeders in the Food Chain on up to the rest of us.
I was shocked that the whole world Community just gave up on it and allowed Japan's TEPCO to muddle along...as if "Nothing to See Here...Just let them Handle It" was the proper way to handle this NUCLEAR DISASTER!
It's as if we have World Amnesia about Effects of Nuclear Radiation!
I'm a post WWII Baby and this is just beyond belief to me!
I'm amazed at the folks who think (even on Dem Side) that this is just a hoax like "Climate Change" is to be denied.
They are too young to remember that the US doesn't get MONSOON RAINS? Or, that Hiroshima, Nagasaki caused massive Birth Defects to those it didn't kill?
How could JAPAN of all places FORGET the effects of this? The population is supposed to be aged...and yet they allowed these Nuclear Plants and then TEPCO to Lie to Them?
I really have to say I get so discouraged at times these days wondering if NO ONE reads HISTORY....or even has Parents/Grandparents who passed on what went on during WWII and Aftermath. And, even Korean War and Vietnam seem to have faded into memory for much of the World's Population.
Only Japan can defeat the radioactive monster from the sea.
Strange days.
have called a Council to make Recommendations about ways to deal with this. I never heard of Japan calling for that.
Just like after the BP Oil Spill when other countries who had Ships who could Mop Up or Suck up were offering to POB to come and help and they were turned away. It was said that the Gulf Spill was Different and that BP would have the expertise to deal with it...which was spreading CoREXENT on it to make it go to the bottom of the Gulf...so it wouldn't be seen but would beyond prying eyes to lurk there indefinitely without proper study to the after effects.
But...there was nothing to see there...just move along and we needed to get Tourists back into the Gulf States and New Orlean's Convention Centers....so we ignored it all and who know what those folks who visit NO's and go to those Conventions and the Local Folks are eating that will have after effects.
And I guess Tokyo Business Interests just ignore what's "down the road from them" and maybe import their food from CHINA...who shares the same waters with South Korea and others of where the Fish Swim...
It will come to California...but Nuke Radiation takes time to work itself through the food chain.
So..who cares if the Cancer and Birth Defects start to form along the lines of the Pacific Currents in the next many Decades and there's a spike that starts to show up.
By then we will have Cured Cancer and Birth Defects will be taken care of with Rehabilitative drugs or parts grown in labs that repair it all.
Who knows...but, we can't replace with new Pharma and Genetic Manipulation the millions of Birds, Ocean Plant Life and the Organisms that all our Marine Life feed on and that will have an effect on all the rest of us as we go forward.
Sorry for the gloom. But, that this has gone on so long...without the World Community getting Alarmed & Involved is just incredible...Beyond fathoming.
They HAVE been exposed. If TEPCO screws up the fuel removal, we may be exposed...depending how bad they screw up.
The mp3 in post #8 goes over a lot of the corrupt politics involved. 
There's tons of stuff at Hanford that's worse, Chernobyl is worse, and they still haven't cleaned up all the mess at Bhopal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
Should that make anyone feel better about Fukushima? No.
But there's worse crap in our modern industrial society that nobody gives a flying fuck about.
Fracking and coal fired power plants ought to be banned. Then we can worry about the lesser shit.
