Kurt Nimmo wrote a provocative article/blog at Infowars.com reminding us that the Fukushima reactors, especially reactor Number 4, are like time bombs, and if they follow the worst-case scenarios, the consequences could be severe. I know that infowars.com can be labeled as a whacko website, but the concerns about the spent fuel are very real and legitimate.

Remember, we have two potential Fukushimas in South Jersey: Hope Creek in Salem County and Oyster Creek in Ocean County. Both are the same models as the Japanese reactors and have the same weaknesses, including the spent fuel pools. The United States media, always looking for news that will last a day, have for the most part ignored the first anniversary of the meltdowns at Fukushima.

This changed a bit when the San Onofre nuclear plant in California was shut down and has remained shut down since the winter because it lacks the safety systems in place to stop a Fukushima-sized catastrophe from happening there.

The article references Japanese diplomat Akio Matsumura, who was warning that Fukushima could ultimately turn into an event capable of extinguishing all life on Earth.

Matsumura posted this on his blog after a statement made by Japan’s former ambassador to Switzerland, Mitsuhei Murata, on the situation at Fukushima.

On March 22, 2012 Murata warned, “If the crippled building of reactor unit 4 – with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground – collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4.”

In both cases the radioactive rods are in containment. They are open to the air. The number of fuel rods that could be unprotected if the fuel ponds leak, and the chances of a fire among the spent fuel rods could, in the worst case, release more radiation and radionuclides than any previous action. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries.

Ambassador Murata said there were 11,421 fuel rods that could be exposed. Dave Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists expressed concerns about spent fuel fires years ago.

Matsumura then asked Robert Alvarez, former senior policy adviser to the secretary and deputy assistant secretary for national security and the environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, his opinion on the dangers that still lurked at Fukushima.  Containing radiation at the crippled facility will be difficult, Alvarez said.

“Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks,” Alvarez told Matsumura.

The 11,138 spent fuel assemblies stored at the Fukushima plant contain 134 million curies of Cesium-137 – roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident, as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection. Sites like Fukushima that have been operating for a long time contain some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.

"This is an issue of human survival,” Matsumura added.

Can anyone say “Oyster Creek”?

Akio Matsumura sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No. 4 reactor. This is confirmed by most reliable experts like Dr. Arnie Gundersen or Dr. Fumiaki Koide,” he wrote to Ki-moon. “The world has been made so fragile and vulnerable. The role of the United Nations is increasingly vital. I wish you the best of luck in your noble mission.”

No word yet if this situation even registers on the United Nations radar screen. But it should be on ours.

See http://www.infowars.com/fukushima-reactor-4-life-on-planet-earth-in-the-balance/.

Campaign. Learn more at www.coalitionforpeaceandjustice.org and www.unplugsalem.org. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (609) 335-8176. Comment at www.shorenewstoday.com.