Fire Tepco, bring in top scientists and engineers to solve crisis
By Mark Ellis
Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
NEW YORK (ANS) -- After the hands and feet of emergency workers were burned by highly radioactive water and public apologies for the release of false information, signs still point to the possibility of a crack in the reactor core of unit three at the troubled nuclear plant in Japan.
“This is the nightmare that haunts every physicist – a crack in the vessel,” Physicist Michio Kaku PhD, a professor at City University of New York, said on Good Morning America. A crack in the vessel implies core damage, he noted.
On March 25, Tepco officials apologized for allowing workers into the troubled nuclear plant without adequate footwear. Two days later they apologized for releasing incorrect data on radiation levels. Due to Tepco’s slow and seemingly inept response to the crisis, and opaque or conflicting communications, Dr. Kaku believes the time is overdue for an overhaul of the crisis management team.
“If I had the ear of the Prime Minister, instead of accepting their apology, I would remove them entirely from leadership of this crisis and bring in a top team of the world’s best nuclear physicists and engineers with the authority to call up the Japanese military,” Dr. Kaku said. “Only the military, led by an international team of top scientists, using Tepco as a consultant, can tame this monster.”
The use of saltwater to cool the reactor cores seems to have produced an undesirable side effect. “They were late in putting in saltwater, because saltwater is corrosive and they knew it would damage their reactors,” Dr. Kaku said. “It was never meant to be a long-term solution. The use of saltwater is a Band-Aid.”
“You have to remove the saltwater because it contains corrosive salt, which gums up the rods, raises temperatures, and could cause a hydrogen gas explosion. Once again they are behind the eight ball,” Dr. Kaku lamented.
The United States announced on March 25 it would dispatch a naval vessel filled with fresh water from the Yokosuka naval base to attempt to reverse this quandary.
Still, the dreadful potential of a Chernobyl-style release of radiation causes Dr. Kaku the greatest concern. “The most dangerous nightmare that haunts the dreams of every nuclear physicist is a huge crack in the vessel that actually contains the uranium rods itself. It means there is core damage. It means there could be a steam explosion or hydrogen gas explosion that blows the vessel apart,” he noted.
“That’s what happened at Chernobyl. That’s why you had an uncontrolled release of 25 percent of the core into the air over Kiev.”
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Mark Ellis is a senior correspondent for ASSIST News Service and the founder of
www.Godreports.com. He is available to speak to groups about the plight of the church in restricted countries, to share stories and testimonies from the mission field, and to preach the gospel.
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