Lack of Data Heightens Japan’s Nuclear Crisis - NYT

[WillyT]

Lack of Data Heightens Japan’s Nuclear Crisis
By HIROKO TABUCHI and KEITH BRADSHER
Published: April 8, 2011

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TOKYO — Nearly one month after Japan’s devastating nuclear accident, atomic energy experts, regulators and politicians around the world are still puzzling over a basic question: How much danger is still posed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?

That depends to a considerable extent on how hot the uranium fuel rods at the power plant remain, and whether fuel has escaped its containment, or might still do so. Yet remarkably little is known for sure about what is really happening inside the reactors because some areas remain far too radioactive for workers to approach, and some instruments have malfunctioned.

The paucity of data and the conflicting estimates of what the available information really means have prompted a series of confusing analyses and a rift between officials in Japan and those overseas — and even between one member of Congress and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The commission speculated this week that the nuclear fuel in the core of one of the stricken reactors had probably leaked from its thick steel pressure vessel, its most important protective barrier. If that proved to be accurate, it would raise the prospect of continuing fuel leaks and high levels of radioactive releases that would vastly complicate containment and the cleanup.

But Japanese officials said there was no evidence of a compromised pressure vessel, and they wondered why they were reading about it in the newspapers. “If they have a concern, they should inform us,” said Kentaro Morita of Japan’s nuclear regulatory body, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, after its American counterpart sounded the alarm over a possible nuclear fuel leak at the plant’s Reactor No. 2, clearly contradicting Japanese accounts. “They didn’t say such concerns to us directly,” Mr. Morita said.

A senior Foreign Ministry official, meanwhile, accused the foreign media of exaggerating the threat posed by the power plant and the radiation spreading from it. Radiation fears are hurting sales of Japanese products abroad.

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More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/asia/09nuclear.html

:kick:

[spin]

1. You can always trust your power company even if it is in Japan...

and you can trust the Nuclear Regulatory Commission they have your best interests at heart.

The pressure on American officials to give well-rounded explanations about the potential threat remains high. In fact, some members of Congress who are critics of the nuclear power industry are skeptical that the regulatory commission has been as forthcoming as it should be about the risks posed by Japan’s nuclear crisis or the potential impact on American nuclear power plants that use similar technology.

This week, Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, an outspoken critic, engaged in a running debate with members of the commission’s staff over the conditions at Reactor No. 2 in Japan. Mr. Markey said the regulators had told his staff that fuel was leaking from the reactor, but then the commission issued a more ambiguous public statement.

“I find it rather curious that some within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are attempting to deny the findings their own technical staff conveyed to my office as soon as it became clear that this information showed a meltdown that is more severe than some people apparently wish to acknowledge,” Mr. Markey said in a statement.

On the Japanese side, officials have an obvious desire to avoid causing panic in public statements.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/world/asia/09nuclear.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1