Saturday, April 23, 2011

Eight Questions for Areva regarding Fukushima pollution containment

I have just sent this to press@areva.com, since Areva are now helping Tepco to clean the water that is flooding the basement at Fukushima.

You can email them too if you like. One email is likely to be ignored. 100 are less likely to be ignored.


Dear Areva Press Officer

I congratulate your company on commencing work on removing radionuclides from the water in the basement of the Fukushima Daichi reactors, though I find it difficult to understand why it has taken so long to initiate this action, as 43 days have now passed since the earthquake and tsunami.

I have a number of questions about the matter, and I would be very grateful if you would forward this email to the right quarters for response.


  1. What is the composition of the steam coming out of Reactor2?
  2. If it contains radiation, why has that steam not been captured and treated already?
  3. Are there plans to capture this steam?
  4. When R1,3 and 4 are covered as per Tepco's plans, will the contained air be extracted and filtered?
  5. Why will it take so long to pump out the basement of R2? What is the block to putting more pumps in place?
  6. What plans are in place to minimise air and groundwater pollution in the event of the corium escaping containment and coming into contact with groundwater?
  7. Is it possible to remove the spent fuel pools from the reactor buildings in order to facilitate control?
  8. What would be the consequences of abandoning attempts to achieve cold shutdown and simply burying the reactors?
Many thanks for your trouble in this matter. I appreciate that you are all busy, but you will appreciate that good communication with the public is vital in this situation. You will also appreciate that a comprehensive and early reduction of emissions to levels as low as practically achievable from Fukushima are in the long term interests both of the populations affected by the plumes, but also of the nuclear industry.

Sincerely


.....

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about Libya?

johnm33 said...

What about Libya? see this http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/libya-all-about-oil-or-all-about-banking/
This Fukushima thing is moving into nightmare terrortory http://beforeitsnews.com/story/583/970/You_wont_hear_this_on_any_mainstream_news_Nuclear_Fallout.html
and
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/radiation-expert-sr-90-and-uranium-and-particulates-will-be-building-usa-and-europe-now-i-th
It looks like the good news is that lots of people wont be able to afford food. What are the 'global elite' up to do they have a secret safe source of food for their families? aaargh

johnm33 said...

this didn't show up properly
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/583/970/You_wont_hear_this_on_any_mainstream_news_Nuclear_Fallout.html

johnm33 said...

last try link
great just learned how to do links

GIDEON MACK said...

Do you know of any reason why the amelioration of this situation would be deliberately delayed?

Cleo said...

Still no posts on Libya?
Looks like your analysis went askew, doc.
The no-fly zone is enforced but still no result so now we have a policy of state-sanctioned assasination. What next?!
And dictators elsewhere, far from being deterred by nato action, are increasingly beligerant - not to mention the nonsense of Bahraini (dictatorship) support for the Libyan rebels.
Another fine mess...

DocRichard said...

Hi Gideon
I cannot imagine they would deliberately delay amelioration. It is both in the interest of the nuclear industry and human health that the emissions stop asap. However, their response to emissions is to try to minimise the danger through propaganda, rather than to tackle the reality.

I believe it is down to the fact that they are fucussed solely on trying to cool the damn things, and are unable to walk (=cool) and chew gum (=contain) at the same time.

Areva have responded saying they are only doing the water in the basement, and we should contact Tepco with these questions. So here is the link

DocRichard said...

Cleo

I have had a few days off from blogging. The situation with Arab Spring remains: we are at an historic choice in the road, to let dictatorships flourish, or to promote democracy. It remains the case that if Gaddafi wins dictators everywhere will take heart, and if he loses, democrats everywhere will be empowered. It remains the case that the military effort is half hearted, possibly due to pro-Gaddafi pressure from the Israeli lobby. It remains the case that they the drive to shut down Nilesat is stymied by broadcast corporation interests.

I aim to put all this together in a review, but the sun keeps calling me away from the computer.

johnm33 said...

I saw this http://beforeitsnews.com/story/633/646/TEPCO_to_Place_Giant_Tents_over_Fukushima_Reactors.html and thought of you