#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: May 8 Release of Large Amount of Radioactive Materials?

That's what Taro Kono, Representative of Japan's Lower House, says on his May 5 blog post. Referring to an email he received from a bureaucrat at Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, he quotes from one of the email attachment - minutes of the general meeting on May 1 of the government-TEPCO consolidated headquarters to deal with Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident.

From his May 5 blog post :

5月1日の政府・東電統合本部全体会合の議事録。

Minutes of the general meeting on May 1 of the government-TEPCO consolidated headquarters [to deal with Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident]

『このままいくと8日にも高濃度の放出が行われる。』

"At the rate things are going, a large amount [of radioactive materials] will be released on May 8."

『細野補佐官から，本件は熱交換機の設置といった次のステップに進む上で非常に重要である，また，（今後，放射性物質が外に排出され得るという点で，）汚染水排出の際の失敗を繰り返さないよう，関係者は情報共有を密に行い，高い感度を持って取り組んで欲しい，とする発言があった。』

"This [not clear what "this" is, without context] is a very important step to install the heat exchanger, said the PM assistant Hosono. He also said (regarding the possibility of radioactive materials released [outside the reactor building] from now on) that the people involved should share information with each other thoroughly, and be sensitive so as not to repeat the mistakes when the contaminated water was released into the ocean."

Well, who do you think are the "people involved"?

My guess? The government people - chiefs and deputy chiefs at ministries and agencies, and maybe the governor of Fukushima, and TEPCO. When the contaminated water was dumped into the ocean, the Minister of Agriculture and Fishery was upset not because he thought dumping radioactive water was bad but because no one had told him beforehand.

The "people involved" don't seem to include the residents of Fukushima or Japan. Maybe not even the plant workers.

Aside from Mr. Kono's blog post, there is no announcement from any government ministry or agency warning the residents of the potential danger of release of radioactive materials on May 8, when TEPCO is planning to open the double door to the Reactor 1's reactor building to start the work of installing a cooling system that uses a heat exchanger inside the reactor building.

That TEPCO will start the work on May 8 is in the mainstream news, but no word on a large amount of release of radioactive materials possibly as part of the work. Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency says the amount will be very small. (Uh huh.)

There are some who speculates that the cooling of the Reactor 1 by the "water entombment" is not what it seems. This journalist (link is in Japanese) says one of his friends who used to work at Fukushima I Nuke Plant as an engineer thinks the main purpose of filling the Containment Vessel with water is "wet vent". If the release of radioactive materials in large amount is expected on May 8, the reason why TEPCO is pouring more water into the Containment Vessel is to do the "wet vent" that will reduce the amount of radioactive materials coming out of the Pressure Vessel by having them go through water.

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