Monday, February 4, 2013

#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: TEPCO Ready to Remove Huge Truss from Reactor 3 Spent Fuel Pool


These days, it almost feels as if the last sane place remaining in Japan is actually Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, where they have actual jobs to do and they are at it every single day mostly because they have no other choice. (If you are wondering what I'm talking about, read the Anything Goes series.)

TEPCO (or rather, workers at 2nd-tier subcontractors just below the primary subcontractors such as Hitachi and Kajima) has been carefully removing the debris on what was used to be the operating floor of the Reactor 3 building. It says it is ready to remove one of the big trusses sometime in early February, and has released the photographs and diagrams.

From TEPCO's handout for the press, 2/4/2013:


Platforms have been built surrounding the reactor building so that the remote-controlled heavy equipment can operate from the platforms:


In the meantime, according to Mainichi Shinbun, the Japanese prosecutors have seized the testimony that the former Fuku-I plant manager Masao Yoshida gave in closed-door sessions by the Fukushima nuclear accident independent investigation commission set up by the Cabinet Office under the DPJ administration, for the purpose of potentially using the testimony to indict Yoshida and TEPCO. The testimony in the closed sessions was freely given, under the government guarantee that the information obtained would not be used against the person giving the testimony.

Now that it is no longer DPJ government but a new and improved LDP government, that guarantee means squat, and the court that routinely sides with the prosecutors readily grants a warrant of seizure.

Mr. Yoshida, stricken with esophagus cancer and after suffering a stroke last year, hasn't been seen or heard. TEPCO hasn't shared any information about his condition. The Mainichi article says he is in no condition to speak to the prosecutors.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr Yoshida will likely take the "hit" for the disaster..with TEPCO saying he did not follow their guidance. After all, he had saltwater sprayed, which prevented an even worse disaster. But dead men don' talk, and he is so very ill with cancer. And his cancer..is not even covered by TEPCO, his disability insurance was denied. Wonder how hes managing, and his family as well. My prayers go to him.

Anonymous said...

A dead man makes a perfect scapegoat, no?

Anonymous said...

OT: public comments are open for a few more days on the new nuclear safety standard and the evacuation procedures. Japanese readers, make your voice heard.

Beppe

Anonymous said...

Everyone is pointing fingers and screaming I told you so. But we are all guilty . Nobody is blameless. Unless you light candles when its dark and walk every where you go. You play your part in the madness.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous 11:36
Give me any chance to avoid nuclear produced electricity and replace it by renewable if possible and I'll gladly pay double my bills. Other things may also go up so what? I don't think it's that easy as to point a finger to everyone. Who's giving/making the choices?

Anonymous said...

To say we're all guilty is the same as saying we're all not guilty.

Anonymous said...

@11:36 I do not think so: Japanese people were duped into believing nuclear technology was safe and electricity can be produced without nuclear powerplants (as it is in Italy). Using light bulbs and cars is not tantamount to support nuclear energy.

Besides, often you are hardly allowed to choose: if your employer asks you to fly somewhere what do you do? Do you refuse and lose your job in order to save energy?
If your apartment has an air conditioner what do you do? Install a wooden stove? Risk a heatstroke because the apartment has a poor insulation?

Finally, in no country nuclear provides for more than 5% of the energy: as a society we can cut that 5% relatively easily and without going back to the middle ages.

Beppe

Anonymous said...

Arevamirpal,
Yoshida will pay for everyone's mistakes...
OT
For your next Anything goes ?
Judge serving the nuclear realness that TEPCO will soon be paying her for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu9V7YHBoBw

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