Japan Nuclear Plant Is Far from Stable; Another Hydrogen Explosion Is Possible

Japan Nuclear Plant Is Far from Stable: U.S. Report (Video)

Japan's TEPCO Will Begin Injecting Nitrogen Into Reactors, But NRC Assessment Sees Peril

April 6, 2011

ABC News - After workers successfully plugged the highly radioactive leak seeping into the Pacific Ocean, a new confidential assessment by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission obtained by the New York Times suggests that the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant is far from stable.

Fragments of incredibly dangerous nuclear fuel were blown out of the reactors "up to one mile from the units," and then simply bulldozed over to protect workers on site, according to the NRC report.

Until now, flooding the damaged reactors with water has been considered the most efficient cooling method but the latest assessment raises concerns that the water may have introduced a new set of dangerous complications. U.S. engineers now worry that the enormous amount of water is actually weakening the containment vessels, making them more vulnerable to possible ruptures.

In an effort to avoid the continued spread of radiation and worse, a hydrogen explosion due to the hydrogen and oxygen present in seawater, plant operator TEPCO announced that it will begin injecting nitrogen into reactor one and likely reactors two and three. Nitrogen is normally present inside the containment that surrounds the reactor core and can prevent highly combustible hydrogen from exploding as it did three times in the early days after the March 11 disaster.

The Associated Press reports that Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) made clear that TEPCO is erring on the safe side.

"The nitrogen injection is being considered a precaution," said NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama.

ABC News consultant and president of Ploughshares Fund, Joe Cirincione told ABC News that a hydrogen explosion, while not expected, is not totally out of the question.

"A new hydrogen explosion could happen, there could be a failure 'in one of' the fuel ponds that could cause a fire and if so, it could be a major release of radiation," said Cirincione.

While the newest threat is concentrated on land, nearly 11,500 tons of radioactive sea water is slowly diluting in the Pacific Ocean. Many worry that migrating fish such as albacore tuna might be contaminated as they make their way from Japan to the Pacific Northwest. Ken Buesseler, the senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution studies the effects of radiation in the ocean and said the situation is likely not as dangerous as people imagine.

"Eating fish from those offshore sites at concentration factors that people have seen before, over the course of a year for an average citizen might give you a dose equivalent to a CAT scan or something, that's significant, it's not trivial. But it would not be life threatening," said Buesseler.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will require seafood imported from Japan to be checked for radiation before it enters the food supply but Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of Food and Water Watch, questions the FDA's ability to run those necessary tests.

"I think the concern is, the FDA doesn't have the resources to properly screen and then do laboratory tests. In the best of times, they only test less than 2 percent of seafood that comes from imports," said Hauter.

But even with the new screenings, no one in the U.S. government is saying "stop eating tuna." So far, the FDA said every piece of imported seafood is completely safe.

Japanese Nuclear Plant Worker Discusses Choice to Sacrifice His Life

April 5, 2011

The Lookout - As Japan continues to grapple with catastrophic radiation leaks at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daichii nuclear complex, the plant's remaining workers have shown heroic dedication in the face of a task that amounts to a likely suicide mission.

The global audience following the Japanese nuclear drama has learned a little about these selfless heroes. But some of the most basic questions about them--who they are and what has motivated them to make the ultimate sacrifice--have gone unanswered. Now, however, the Agence France Press reporter Kimi De Freytas has published an interview with one of the Fukushima workers that sheds considerable light on how they understand their mission--and how they are holding up under under the extraordinary, mortal stress they are facing.

Hiroyuki Kohno, a 44-year-old plant worker who's been employed in the nuclear industry since he was a teenager, promptly answered the emergency call issued by his employer, a subcontractor for the Tokyo Electric Power Company. Shortly after last March's devastating earthquake and tsunami produced a power outage at the facility, Kohno's employers sent out an all-hands appeal via email.

"Attention. We would like you to come work at the plant. Can you?" De Freytas reports the email read. Kohno, who has worked at the Fukushima facility for the past decade, said he knew what the implications of heeding the call would be.

"To be honest, no one wants to go," Kohno told De Freytas. "Radiation levels at the plant are unbelievably high compared with normal conditions. I know that when I go this time, I will return with a body no longer capable of work at a nuclear plant."

Kohno told De Freytas that as a single man with no children, he felt obligated to answer the call and join the team that the media has dubbed the "Fukushima Fifty." Better that he face the risk, he explained, so as to spare his colleagues who have dependents counting on them. Besides, he added, the workers in the plant are his brothers and sisters, and he feels an allegiance to them.

"There's a Japanese expression: 'We eat from the same bowl.' These are friends I shared pain and laughter with. That's why I'm going," he explained to De Freytas.

Other workers among the Fukushima Fifty have apparently discussed the dire prospects ahead fairly openly. As the unidentified mother of a 32-year-old plant worker explained in a tearful phone interview with Fox News,

"My son and his colleagues have discussed it at length and they have committed themselves to die if necessary to save the nation."

Meanwhile, plant officials have sought to supplement the ranks of workers seeking to contain the spread of radioactive contamination from the facility with workers known as "jumpers"—contract employees who agree to complete designated tasks before fleeing in the hopes that they can shun sustained radioactive exposure. Workers in the "jumper" corps are being offered as much as $5,000 a day, Reuters reports—and many are still turning the offers down.

While the fate of Kohno and his fellow workers remains uncertain, their fellow citizens are already determined to commemorate their heroism.