Fukushima Reactor #4 is in bad shape. If we get an earthquake this building can collapse, the fuel can catch fire and the site would have to be abandoned. This would be a calamity for Japan and the rest of the earth.
I am not understanding why the USA is still spending trillions on the military chasing terrorists when we have this real chilling likely disaster facing us. Why isn't Obama doing more about Fukushima? Fukushima needs whatever it takes to mitigate this disaster and it needs it right now.
This is a repost of an earlier diary with more source material added.
http://www.ctv.ca/...
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Worst-case scenario
There are a couple of possible outcomes, Gundersen said.
Highly radioactive cesium and strontium isotopes would likely go airborne and "volatilize" -- turning into a vapour that could move with the wind, potentially travelling thousands of kilometres from the source.
The size of those particles would determine whether they remained in Japan, or made their way to the rest of Asia and other continents.
"And here's where there's no science because no one's ever dared to attempt the experiment," Gundersen said. "If it flies far enough it goes around the world, if the particles stay a little bigger, they settle in Japan. Either is awful."
Essentially, he said, Japan is sitting on a ticking time bomb.
The damaged Reactor 4 cooling pool was reinforced by workers who went in and "jury-rigged" it after the tsunami, but the structure still contains a massive amount of fuel, Gundersen said.
Reactor 3 has less fuel inside its cooling pool, but it has not been strengthened since the disaster and poses a greater risk of failing.
"Reactor 3 has a little less consequences but a little more risk, and Reactor 4 has more consequences but…a little less risk," he said.
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‘Fate of the world' depends on Reactor 4
He's not alone in pressing the Japanese government to adopt a sense of urgency about the Reactor 4 dilemma.
Robert Alvarez, a former top adviser at the U.S. Department of Energy, also expressed concern in a letter to Akio Matsumura, a Japanese diplomat who has turned his focus to the nuclear calamity.
Matsumura had asked Alvarez about the risk associated with Reactor 4.
"The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements," Alvarez said in his response. "If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cesium-137 released by the Chernobyl accident."
Mitsuhei Murata, Japan's former ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal, has also made it his mission to convince the UN and the world that urgent action is needed.
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In response to a question regarding the impact of reactor #4 collapsing to those living on the west coast USA, Arnie answered:
"If Unit #4 is not standing have a plan B to move somewhere"
And here is [TRAILER] NUCLEAR NATION. The sad tale of the people of Futaba's nuclear energy experience.
8:54 AM PT: Regarding the title of this diary, I still believe it is correct. Clearly the west coast of the USA is in danger of becoming uninhabitable as Arnie Gundersen says one should have an evacuation plan if Reactor #4 collapses. And if this thing starts burning for months sending massive amounts of radioactive poison into the atmosphere who knows what can become uninhabitable.
9:17 AM PT: Regarding the infowars source, this was included because Arnie Gundersen's answers in this interview starkly stated the problem. And unless it is suggested that infowars somehow edited Arnie's answers to something different than they were actually there is nothing wrong with this interview.