There is a report on the right which is predicting 200,000 additional cancers in Japan as a result of Fukushima.
At the end of the latest video (April 10th) from fairewinds, Arnie says that reactor #2 is in meltdown. Arnie says that reactor #3 may be in meltdown.
What people may not know about Chernobyl is that it wasn’t just encased in concrete. There were miners who dug under the plant and put in a cooling slab to prevent a meltdown to the water table which would have resulted in a huge explosion:
Following the explosion, a massive concrete ‘sarcophagus’ (cover) was constructed around the damaged no. 4 Reactor. This sarcophagus encases the damaged nuclear reactor and was designed to halt the release of further radiation into the atmosphere. The first task in containing the destroyed reactor was to build a ‘cooling slab’ under the reactor to prevent the still-hot reactor fuel from burning a hole in the base of the reactor. Coal miners were drafted in to dig this tunnel under the reactor and by 24 June four hundred coal miners had built the 168m long tunnel under the reactor.
So you can’t just encase Fukushima in concrete and go on your merry way. Someone would need to dig underneath the plant and build a slab to stop the molten nuclear fuel from reaching the water table and blowing everything sky high. There is something like 26 times as much nuclear fuel (including the spent fuel ponds) at Fukushima as compared to Chernobyl.
This thing isn’t over yet by a long shot. Russia actually brought in a massive force of people to help contain Chernobyl. There were something like 500,000 ‘liquidators’ who helped in cleanup and meltdown prevention at Chernobyl.
At Fukushima, there is a crew of 400 and as far as I know, no one is digging under the plants to put in slabs to prevent a total meltdown to the water table. Let’s hope those 40-year-old reactors are able to completely contain the molten nuclear fuel.
