They are advancing the kabuki now…

TEPCO just stuck an industrial-grade endoscope, one specifically designed for extreme radiation environments, into a hole drilled into the Daiichi #2 reactor in order to look for the corium- the melted mass of fuel and core structures that used to be the reactor core.

This is months overdue and the oligarchs responsible for this delay should be required to spend a decade in jail for every day they refused to do it. 

So TEPCO tried to find the corium or at least confirm the water level. What they found was high heat, massive amounts of steam and an equally massive radiation flux… this in a reactor that is supposedly in a state of “cold shutdown.”

It will be no surprise to FFS readers that they couldn’t find the corium amidst the steam and radiation “dazzle”.

They couldn’t even find the water level.

They can’t find it because the core isn’t there. It hasn’t been there since the day of the quake.

The <1% already knew this, of course, but I’d guess that they are trying to “break the news gently”... or rather, they have begun trying to sync up the fantasy of lies they’ve been spinning with the reality of what they’ve actually done to the Japanese people.

This isn’t going to end well…

Every blow against fission is a blow against fusion in the short run too.  It decreases demand for experts in nuclear reactions, it reinforces the misconception that scientists don’t understand nuclear power well enough, and hurts the money going into the blanket field of nuclear research.  Nobody wins.

ikanreed - 23 January 2012 11:29 AM

Every blow against fission is a blow against fusion in the short run too.  It decreases demand for experts in nuclear reactions, it reinforces the misconception that scientists don’t understand nuclear power well enough, and hurts the money going into the blanket field of nuclear research.  Nobody wins.

I couldn’t agree more. 

Whether fusion becomes viable in 10years or 50, we need bulk power now.  That means a new generation of tried & trusted fission plants.  It also means we need a generation worth of children growing up with the necessary maths, physics & engineering to make it happen.  And a generation worth of educating the people of the world about the true nature of risk.

To Ikanreed and James,

Sorry, but your logic is seriously flawed in several respects. Fatally so. I’ll put together a detailed response to you both later this evening but for now consider this:

You’ve failed to address how your rather optimistic pro-fission future proceeds with the unlocated corium masses still seething somewhere underneath Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1, 2 and 3.

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/news/110311/index-e.html

That’s not my primary disagreement with your arguments, which I find as a string of false equivalences,  but I also find it fascinating how the reality of what has happened and is happening with Fukushima just vanishes from your responses.

I have chores and dinner but I shall return

I fear that TEPCO has a problem with transparency and the issue is that their business culture holds sway over the scientific and engineering communities who would otherwise be able to provide oversight…As with BP’s oil spill, the company is slow to respond and turns a blind eye to the magnitude of the problem, which also exists because of political stonewalling. The Fukushima meltdown should still be in the news and the repercussions need to be seriously addressed, it would be wrong to “sweep it under the rug”. Japan had already had it’s share of environmental disasters.