DEAR News Of The Area,

It is sobering to learn that, fourteen years after the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the three destroyed nuclear reactors still have not been ‘cleaned up’.

On 11 March 2011, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake shook north-eastern Japan, triggering a massive series of tsunami waves that breached the seawall and inundated the Fukushima nuclear power plant, disrupting mains power and backup power to three operating reactors: units 1, 2 and 3.

Cooling systems were disabled and all three reactors overheated, leading to three core meltdowns.

The radioactive fuel then burned through the bottom of reactor containments, spilling out like lava.

On March 12, 14 and 15, hydrogen explosions destroyed all three reactors, ejecting massive clouds of carcinogenic radionuclides over northern Japan and the Pacific Ocean, including iodine‐131, strontium‐90, caesium-137, xenon-133, plutonium.

Today, Fukushima’s reactors still contain 880 tonnes of highly radioactive molten fuel, presenting a potential safety hazard for workers and the local community.

The debris has to be removed, but human access is impossible.

So the operator, TEPCO, tried to use robotic drones to inspect the reactors, but several drones were destroyed by intense radioactivity.

It wasn’t until September 2024 that an $A 82 million dollar, robotic arm managed to slowly crawl into Unit 2 primary containment vessel and extract about 3 grams of debris for scientific analysis: a process that took two weeks.

So here we are, 14 years after a horrific nuclear accident and nuclear experts are yet to determine how best to remove, store and ‘dispose’ of the tonnes of leftover radioactive debris. To make matters worse, the clean-up bill is estimated to cost more than 23.4 trillion yen ($A 246 billion): a shocking burden on future generations, long after any electricity has ceased.

Regards,
Kenneth HIGGS,
Raymond Terrace.