Japan asks for world's help on Fukushima leaks

[NoNukes]

'My country needs your knowledge and expertise,' prime minister Abe says.

 

It must be pretty bad if the Japanese are asking for help. But, Japan just won the 2020 Olympics bid because Abe gave his word that Fukushima was under control!

[Simon]

If I recall it correctly, all the internet armchair experts promised that the Fukushima nuclear accident was nothing to worry about, that it was no big problem and that it could easily be fixed... 

 

The Japanese government should have sidestepped TEPCO, who seem unable to even perform the easiest tasks correctly, and called for international support from the very beginning of the crisis. 

[Hakan]

Its amazing they havent asked for help earlier. Surely they must have received some kind of outside help, right? What about IAEA?

[Simon]

Tetsuro Tsutsui, engineer and expert of industrial tanks, said this about the recent leaks:  "I must say these are not accidents. There must be a systematic problem in the way things are run over there. [...] We must say on-site management is extremely poor."

 

Kayoko Nakamura, radiologist and a Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioner: "As far as TEPCO people on our contaminated water and sea monitoring panels are concerned, they seem to lack even the most basic knowledge about radiation." 

 

It's comments like these, from experts in their field, that make me worry about nuclear safety. After all, Japan is supposed to be the text-book example of proper and good nuclear safety. 

 

Its amazing they havent asked for help earlier. Surely they must have received some kind of outside help, right? What about IAEA?

 

Well, they have been offered and received international help. French nuclear companies have been helping out since early 2011. American drones helped monitor the situation from above shortly after the nuclear accident. French and American robots have also helped to monitor the surrounding areas underwater and get access to areas deemed too dangerous for humans. Teams from IAEA have also helped advise TEPCO and the Japanese government. And just the other day, a team of experts from IAEA met Japanese government officials as part of a mission to check on progress in the cleanup at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.