Fukushima: They Knew

[ensho]

http://www.gregpalast.com/completely-and-utterly-fail-in-an-earthquake/#more-5061


"Completely and Utterly Fail in an Earthquake"
The Fukushima story you didn't hear on CNN


-snip-

Here was the handwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant:

Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. . . . In fact, the plant was riddled with problems that, no way on earth, could stand an earth- quake. The team of engineers sent in to inspect found that most of these components could "completely and utterly fail" during an earthquake.

-snip-

On March 12 this year, as I watched Fukushima melt, I knew: the "SQ" had been faked. Anderson Cooper said it would all be OK. He'd flown to Japan, to suck up the radiation and official company bullshit. The horror show was not the fault of Tokyo Electric, he said, because the plant was built to withstand only an 8.0 earthquake on the Richter scale, and this was 9.0. Anderson must have been in the gym when they handed out the facts. The 9.0 shake was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 90 miles away. It was barely a tenth of that power at Fukushima.

I was ready to vomit. Because I knew who had designed the plant, who had built it and whom Tokyo Electric Power was having rebuild it: Shaw Construction. The latest alias of Stone & Webster, the designated builder for every one of the four new nuclear plants that the Obama Administration has approved for billions in federal studies.

-snip-

But I think we should all worry about Bob. The company he worked for, Stone & Webster Engineering, built or designed about a third of the nuclear plants in the United States.

From the fifty-second floor we could look at the Statue of Liberty. She didn’t look back.
--------------------------

it would be wise of you to read the entire article

[madokie]

1. Its only a matter of time before we have one of our own

right here on the good ole US of A soil.
You can take that to the bank

[tavalon]

2. Yes, we can

[ensho]

3. true

nt

[Warpy]

4. Actually, the plant did pretty much withstand that 9.0 quake offshore

What did all the damage was the tsunami that swamped the generators and prevented coolant from being circulated during the shutdown.

[Fuddnik]

5. Actually, no.

I don't have any links, but I recall reading several articles over the last few months that said the damage was immediately after the quake, and the meltdown started before the tsunami hit.

If anyone else has any links, please post them. I'll be getting ready for a fundraiser, and be gone most of the day.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Bloomberg reported a radiation alarm went off before the tsunami hit

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-explosive-truth-behind-fukushimas-meltdown-2338819.html

<snip>The suspicion that the earthquake caused severe damage to the reactors is strengthened by reports that radiation leaked from the plant minutes later. The Bloomberg news agency has reported that a radiation alarm went off about a mile from the plant at 3.29pm, before the tsunami hit.

The reason for official reluctance to admit that the earthquake did direct structural damage to reactor one is obvious. Katsunobu Onda, author of Tepco: The Dark Empire, explains it this way: A government or industry admission "raises suspicions about the safety of every reactor they run. They are using a number of antiquated reactors that have the same systematic problems, the same wear and tear on the piping." Earthquakes, of course, are commonplace in Japan.

[Fumesucker]

6. Can you say "Penn State"?

Sure, I knew you could..

[PearliePoo2]

7. There's confessions (anonymous) from workers at Fukushima....

that piping that delivered cooling water was so mis-aligned that joints had to be lined up and held in place using heavy equipment. These joints were then welded under tremendous stress.
When the earthquake hit, these joints snapped and parted immediately therefore dooming any possibility of delivering water to cool the melting-down mess.
It wasn't the tsunami that delivered the fatal blow, it was the shoddy (and covered-up) poor construction.
Fukushima was fucked from the get-go.
And how many more of these plants are JUST LIKE IT?

[Octafish]

9. They sure as hell did know.

TEPCO was warned and took the cheapskate's way out.

How so very Republican, that TEPCO leadership.