Nuclear Engineer: Japan’s PM “Lying to the Japanese People” About Safety of Fukushima b4in.org/ePf Jessica Desvarieux, TRNN Producer: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Jessica Desvarieux in Baltimore. On the heels of Tokyo winning the bid for the 2020 Olympic Games, Japan’s prime minister visited the Fukushima site for the first time since the nuclear disaster in March 2011. Shinzö Abe, Japanese Prime Minister (Voiceover Transl.): I have visited Fukushima because I also told the world earlier in Buenos Aires that there will be no health concerns and that there is nothing to worry about. Desvarieux: Now joining us to discuss the unfolding of the events at Fukushima is Arnie Gunderson. He has over 40 years of nuclear power engineering experience. And Arnie holds a nuclear safety patent. He was a licensed reactor operator and is a former nuclear industry senior vice president. Arnie, thanks for joining us. Arnie Gundersen, Chief Engineer, Fairewinds: Hi. Thanks for having me. Desvarieux: Let’s first start off with Japan’s prime minister’s visit. He’s saying there is no reason to be worried. Meanwhile, TEPCO seems to be scrambling to contain the leaking radioactive material, and there are reports of fish being radioactive and possible birth defects from the disaster. What do you think is happening here? Should we be worried? Gundersen: Well, first off, Prime Minister Abe didn’t tell the truth. There’s no doubt about it. The plant is leaking into the Pacific Ocean extensively. And, yeah, we are seeing deformed fish, we are seeing deformed animals, and we are seeing thyroid cancers already. So his comment was a public relations stint designed to win the Olympics, but in fact it has no bases in reality. He really didn’t appreciate how hard the people on that site are working against incredible odds. You know, show up for half a day and then leave and wish them all well–that’s not what a true leader really does. Desvarieux: Okay. Why has it taken so long for them to actually contain the leaking radioactive material? Is it because we’ve seen this nuclear–we haven’t seen something on this scale? Or is TEPCO in some ways inept? Gundersen: Well, I was on CNN during the first week of the accident, and I said this is going to be a long slog. It’s never happened where three nuclear reactors have blown up in three days. So this is a brand-new event. But that’s not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that Tokyo Electric has been allowed to continue to operate this plant and try to clean up the site. They’re an operator, they’re not an engineering firm, so that you’ve really got the wrong skill set. So you’ve got the wrong people trying to do the cleanup. There’s one other piece, though, and that piece is the cost. Tokyo Electric doesn’t have enough money to do this. I made some recommendations two years ago to prevent this water from going into the Pacific, and I was told Tokyo Electric didn’t have enough money to do it. Well, if they had done my recommendations years ago, they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in now. The money’s got to come from the nation of Japan. And the Japanese government doesn’t want to admit that they’re on the hook for half a trillion–that’s with a T–half a trillion dollars. And they would rather not tell the Japanese people that, because the Japanese government wants to get 50 nuclear plants up and running, and if the people ever realized the liability that they face, I don’t think that would happen. More b4in.org/ePf
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 17:22:25 +0000
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