The following article is based on sources that are publicly available. The author has no inside knowledge of events at Fukushima Daiichi.
Abe was lying. Unforunately, the site is
nowhere near "under control." Fukushima Daiichi, the
nuclear reactor complex damaged by the earthquake/tsunami of March
2011, continues to spew forth radioactivity today. The groundwater,
which connects with the Tokyo aquifer, picks up unacceptable levels
of radiation from the molten reactor cores. There are radioactive hot
spots all over northern Japan, including in Tokyo. The practice
field for athletes is only 20 kilometers from the Fukushima Daiichi.
If the 2020 Olympics do take place in Tokyo, Japan will be exposing
the world's finest young athletes to potentially harmful soil and
water.
Siting the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
involves a huge risk. There are so many things that can still go
wrong at Fukushima Daiichi over the next 6 years, that one wonders
why the IOC was willing to go along with the obvious lies told by
Abe-san. The answer is also obvious- the world economy and current
political makeup depends on Japan's stability, as Japan has the third
largest economy on the planet, and is the linchpin of US policy in
the Far East. Moreover, the powers that be are heavily invested in
nuclear power, and want it to appear safe. The Olympic decision is
meant to reassure everyone that Japan is fine and nuclear power is
not to be feared, so as to maintain the status quo.
There is a systematic pattern of lying and coverup about conditions at Fukushima Daiichi. Occasionally we hear that readings were wrong and there is 1000x as much radiation in the groundwater as we were told. Respected national and international groups such as the World Health Organization assure us that there are no deaths or cancer increases from the accident. This, despite the 80 cases of childhood thyroid cancer in the area after only three years, and despite the sick American sailors who were first responders, and despite the many people with nosebleeds, cancers, etc. Japan has a law prohibiting doctors from reporting radiation related diseases. And people who report radiation problems are likely to be prosecuted under the new security law.
So many things can go wrong at Fukushima Daiichi! There's a 400 foot tower, damaged, that could fall at any time, and is too radioactive to approach and repair. Another huge earthquake, tsunami, typhoon, could destabilize any one of the damaged reactor buildings, topple a spent fuel pool, lead to another explosion. The precarious process of removing damaged rods from the spent fuel pools could fail, leading to an unquenchable nuclear fire. The underground melted cores from reactors 1, 2 or 3 could reach a critical mass. The ground could settle and cause the buildings to fall. Etc., etc, etc. Any of these mishaps could force workers to abandon the site, so that the cooling would stop and the complex would spread radiation over a wide portion of Japan, including Tokyo. If any of these things happen, the Olympics will have to be moved, when there is too little time to build a new complex somewhere else.
On April 1 st , 2014, a new management team was put in place, devoted to decommissioning and decontaminating the plant. It's telling that it took Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) 3 years to make such an obvious move. One can only speculate that a combination of denial, corruption, and stupidity prevented this necessary reorganization.
The team is headed by Naohiro Masuda, who has a reputation for toughness, and reportedly saved Fukushima Plant #2, also hit by the tsunami in 2011, from being seriously damaged. He has promised Prime Minister Abe that the groundwater problem would be solved by the end of 2015!
This hope is based on the premise that
an ice wall can be formed around the complex. There is no backup
plan.
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