Fukishima is Still Dangerous

It is leaking serious amounts of radiation. I'm convinced that the Three Stooges could run a better nuclear power plant. The Keystone Kops look like sophisticates compared to Tepco.

Here's a bit from a Bloomberg report:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. reported its second deadly radiation reading in as many days at its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant north of Tokyo.

The utility known as Tepco said yesterday it detected 5 sieverts of radiation per hour in the No. 1 reactor building. On Aug. 1 in another area it recorded radiation of 10 sieverts per hour, enough to kill a person “within a few weeks” after a single exposure, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Radiation has impeded attempts to replace cooling systems to bring three melted reactors and four damaged spent fuel ponds under control after a tsunami on March 11 crippled the plant. The latest reading was taken on the second floor of the No. 1 reactor building and will stop workers entering the area.

In my simple-minded world, the government in Japan would demand that Tepco bring 100 million tons of concrete and encase that set of reactors in a solid block of concrete that will hold the radiation in for several hundred years to get it down to a less dangerous level. Then, in the future, with more sophisticated robots, they could go in and properly break down the old reactors and clean up the site.

I don't appreciate being irradiated even though I'm about 7,000 miles away.