Arnie
Gunderson , a nuclear engineer and energy adviser who has been involved in designing,
constructing, operating and decommissioning nuclear power plants in the USA, recently published a book in Japan called “Fukushima Daiichi: Truth and future Prospects”. In his talk at the Japanese Press club, he criticized the Japanese government, saying that they need to
understand and admit the seriousness of what ‘level 7’means and take
responsibility for its consequences in
the right order of priority - for example, women and children should have been evacuated to a
distance of at least 50km from
the plant for their safety.
He
also said that it would be better to keep radioactive debris near the plant rather
than spreading it all over Japan, saying that their strategy of downgrading and spreading it out is less
expensive in the short term, at least until the pits begin to leak, but that we
should remember that the radiation will continue to be emitted for over hundreds
years, so, while the likelihood of the pits leaking may not be much this year, it will become significant and severe in the future.
He
also pointed out that alternative ways of making electricity would be a better choice for Japan, because the cost of making nuclear energy
sufficiently safe and reliable, given the population density and the fact that practically the whole country
is a very active
earthquake zone, is very high. (Japan has 0.3% of the land of the
whole world, but 10% of earthquakes in the world happen in Japan)
Japan, as well as the rest of the world, is at a tipping point for choosing alternative ways of generating electricity. Rather than building new nuclear power plants and
following the old technology of a centralized power system, it may not be easy but Japan could lead the world with its world-beating renewable technology with Mitsubishi
& Toyota using computers
and smart grid for distributing systems.
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