TEPCO Is Not Providing English Translation of Its Report to NISA on Emergency Cooling Scheme That Assumes Fuel and Reactors Intact at Fukushima I

The Japanese government seems to be "instructing" TEPCO not to release certain information in English.

TEPCO submitted the report to its regulatory agency Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) "on the measures to continue water injection into reactors of Units 1 to 3 at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station" on August 3. It's in Japanese only, and it may or may not be translated into English.

According to TEPCO:

We have provided a Japanese press release version of the instruction document received from NISA. However, at this time we have reserved the right not to provide an English version due to potential misunderstandings that may arise from an inaccurate rendering of the original Japanese text. We may provide the English translation that NISA releases in our press releases. However, in principle we would advise you to visit the NISA website for timely and accurate information.

(From TEPCO's English press release on August 3 explaining why they are releasing the information only in Japanese.)

The 34-page Japanese report is here.

It is an excellent report in "Extend and Pretend", full of elaborate diagrams and flow charts, which states that TEPCO will be able to resume water injection into the 3 (broken) reactors at Fukushima I Nuke Plant within 3 hours at most, more likely within 30 minutes, in case of an emergency which causes the water to stop for any reason - pump failure, power outage, even the total station blackout.

It almost makes me wonder that the reason for not providing English translation is not to avoid "potential misunderstanding" but out of embarrassment.

Why? Because:

• The report talks about the fuel inside the Reactor Pressure Vessels;

• It talks about the reactors as if they were sound;
  

• It states that zirconium will start to interact with water at a certain temperature (1,200 degrees Celsius).

Most likely, there is no fuel left inside the RPVs at Fukushima I Nuke Plant. Even if there is, it is not fuel any more but "corium" - fuel, control rods, instruments, whatever inside the RPV, melted together. TEPCO has already admitted that there are holes in the RPV, and holes in the Containment Vessels. There is no zirconium left because there is no cladding left.

In fact, nowhere in the report does the company say anything about melted fuel, broken reactors, water in the basements, or extremely high radiation at certain locations in the plant.

But the report goes on to describe the elaborate backup pump system and power system as if what they are dealing with is normal (i.e. without cracks or holes at the bottom) reactors with intact fuel rods inside the RPVs with control rods safely deployed in a clean nuclear power plant, and all they need to worry is how they can continue the cooling; or as if the salt-encrusted molten mess of everything that was inside the RPV behaves just the same as normal fuel rods in a normal reactor.

One of the first responses required in almost all emergency cases described in the report requires the plant personnel hurrying to the parking lot on the ocean-side of the main administrative building to carry out the necessary task. What if it's again the earthquake/tsunami situation where the plant workers cannot come to the parking lot? Any contingency plan for that?

No.

Why was TEPCO asked by NISA to submit this report to begin with? So that the national government can begin the discussion with the local municipalities within the 20-kilometer radius evacuation zone for the return of the residents to their towns and villages. The discussion is to begin this month, and TEPCO's report will be used to reassure the residents that Fukushima I Nuke Plant is so stable now with the solid plans (to be approved by NISA, which no doubt will happen very soon) to cool the fuels in the reactors even in case of an emergency.

Remember the mayor of Naraha-machi, where Fukushima II Nuclear Power Plant is located? He wants TEPCO to restart the plant so that 5,000 jobs will return to the town. He also wanted to invite the government to build the final processing plant of spent nuclear fuels in his town. He would be the first one to highly approve of the report so that his town can continue to prosper with nuclear money.

As Haruki "Detarame" Madarame said so well, "It's all about money, isn't it?"

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