Once again, a problem we thought to be local is becoming global:
you liked Californian subprime? You will love Japanese nuclear waste.
The situation is serious. A scenario involving the integrity of humanity on
the medium-term cannot be excluded. If the tanks or spent fuel pools (SFP)
storing irradiated fuels from the reactors in Fukushima is gving way under
the effect of overheating, explosion or an aftershock, we will see emerge, as a
liquid or gas in the sea, air or subsoil, huge quantities of radioactive
materials. And even, in the case of the containment vessel of the third
reactor, considerable quantities of plutonium. With, then, unquestionable
consequences on the contamination of parts of Japan, becoming largely
uninhabitable and other implications, less certain, on the contamination of
the entire planet.
All this because Japanese nuclear authorities, for reasons of pure
financial profits, built this plant where they should not have and refused
to include all the safety measures that were proposed. And because, since
the beginning of the disaster, these same authorities have accumulated
errors on errors in the management of relief, leaving the reactors for days
without cooling, causing irreparable damage to those with systems of
protection still intact. And even, through a mixture of pride and a taste
for secrecy, refusing international aid and not communicating the reality of
what they knew probably, since the beginning, to be a disaster worthy of
worldwide mobilization. In doing so, these authorities initially put at risk
the magnificent Japanese people, that they have under-informed, and in
particular underpaid workers, engaged in extremely dangerous tasks for which
they were not trained.
Now, in order not to admit that they lied, these same officials are refusing the
cooperation of foreign experts, and it is the entire planet that they are
endangering.
It is bewildering that the « international community », now, (and it is
fortunate), so prompt to react, to be indignant at the slightest violation
of human rights, remains, in this case, totally fearless: Japanese officials
are asked politely what they are doing, we do not insist when they refuse
our help, evacuating, which is wise, when they wish, our own nationals, we
make more or less assuaging press releases. In order not to panic the
populations. To save the nuclear industry. To keep sleeping a few days
quietly.
All this is absurd. The nuclear industry will not, possibly, be saved but if
the disaster is under control quickly. There is an urgent need to establish
a global consortium of all competencies. Our Japanese friends must accept as
quickly as possible such intervention, without feeling offended or humiliated by our
insistence, the coming on the spot of the best world experts in the
management of post-accident. This will be, indeed, the only way to know
what is really happening inside the plant.
Without waiting for the conclusions of these experts, it is also necessary
to send now, by plane, all the helicopters, fire hoses, robots, cement
mixers, we can find to organize an effective containment of these reactors
and end this disaster. It is no longer time to question the right or
duty to interfere. But to act.