CHINO, Japan, Aug. 23—No wonder the 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown fiasco happened: On Aug. 22, 2024, Tokyo Electric Power Co. engineers blew a much-awaited opportunity to pull out highly radioactive debris from the still-raging hot out-of-control reactor with an infant-like human error, forcing the effort indefinitely up in the air.
TEPCO described the error as a simple procedural mistake to insert a fishing rod-like device into the red-hot reactor container vessel.
The debris pullout experiment was to be the first-ever attempt at enlarging it to eventually decommission one of the Fukushima reactors – though the amount of radioactive debris to be extracted was a ludicrously tiny ‘3 grams’ or about one-tenth of an ounce, out of some 880 tons buried deep in the reactor. Even more laughable and reflecting the low intellectual levels of TEPCO officials was that the removal operation was to take as long as to weeks.
One can imagine the huge cost of the operation, human labor especially, for the work. No wonder more than 20 trillion yen taxpayer money has been sank into the Fukushima cleanup, which experts had said would take 200 years or longer, and even more money.
The folly meant that TEPCO has effectively abandoned the fishing rod method and virtually given up debris cleanup – and reactor decommissioning.
But TEPCO is a company that never learns from past mistakes – like all other government-capitalized, quasi-governmental, and government-sponsored companies. TEPCO is one of those as it is required to seek government-approval for doing everything, from raising power utility rates to restarting nuclear power reactors, most of them being suspended since March 2011.
TEPCO currently is exploring building new nuclear reactors called fast reactors. They are much smaller in size so it can be located in areas closer to major urban areas. The technology is being explored worldwide as a solution to soaring electricity demand without relying on fossil and renewable fuels.
TEPCO can continue its old, dangerous business model thanks to its bureaucracy guardians, especially the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Though not directly, TEPCO and METI maintains a close arms-length relationship enabling in part retiring bureaucrats to serve as advisors and other functions of power industry lobbies.
Nothing changes.
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