Global Research
Yoichi Shimatsu
After repeated delays since the summer of 2011, the Tokyo Electric Power Company has launched a high-risk operation to empty the spent-fuel pool atop Reactor 4 at the Dai-ichi (No.1) Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.
The urgency attached to this particular site, as compared with reactors damaged in meltdowns, arises from several factors:
- over 400 tons of nuclear material in the pool could reignite
- the fire-damaged tank is tilting badly and may topple over sooner than later
- collapse of the structure could trigger a chain reaction and nuclear blast, and
- consequent radioactive releases would heavily contaminate much of the world.
The
potential for disaster at the Unit 4 SFP is probably of a higher
magnitude than suspected due to the presence of fresh fuel rods, which
were delivered during the technical upgrade of Reactor 4 under
completion at the time of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The
details of that reactor overhaul by GE and Hitachi have yet to be
disclosed by TEPCO and the Economy Ministry and continue to be treated
as a national-security matter. Here, the few clues from whistleblowers
will be pieced together to decipher the nature of the clandestine
activity at Fukushima No.1.
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