Leaks and spills in Japan still, insiders say returning unwise
Experts have told media outlets that a decision to let Fukushima resident back into their homes is premature and potentially very dangerous.
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently announced packages to help 30,000 residents to return to their homes and pushed for the nation’s reactors to be switched back on.
But seniors insiders from Japan’s nuclear provider TEPCO have reportedly risked their livelihoods to tell the media that it is a poor choice.
An apparent Fukushima insider and two former prime ministers have told the ABC that moving people back in would be irresponsible and potentially fatal.
The senior TEPCO staff member said the situation is not under control, and they have very few ideas left for ways to fix it.
“There are too many systems and they all have problems,” he said.
“For example, too many water tanks with too many lines - it's very difficult to operate. It's made worse because all the experienced workers have reached their radiation limits, so TEPCO has to rely on staff that don't know the site and who aren't trained.”
“The other day when contaminated water overflowed from a tank, an alarm was ringing but they didn't go and check. I couldn't believe it. It was ringing for nine hours and they thought the alarm was out of order,” he said.
He said there is currently no way to fix the most heavily-damaged reactors.
“We just don't have the technology to fix it. It currently doesn't exist. We just can't deal with the melted fuel... I feel it is impossible to fix before my death.”
A big part of the Japanese government’s desire to get back into nuclear power is the cost of oil and gas alternatives, which the Prime Minister said was strangling economic recovery.
Former prime minister Naoto Kan, who was in power at the time of the nuclear disaster in 2011, told the ABC that the current government does not understand the risk, water is still leaking and people have not been compensated.
“They are trying to restart the nuclear reactors without learning the lessons of the March 11 accident,” Mr Kan said.
“If the accident had spread just a little further, then 50 million people around Tokyo would have been evacuated for a long time and that would have put Japan in chaos for 20 to 30 years.
“I submitted written questions to Prime Minister Abe and his response from the Nuclear Regulation Authority says it only decides on limited technical issues and won't judge local disaster prevention plans; that is, whether residents can escape safely or whether the residents can ever return.
“It's becoming clear they are trying to restart the reactors with no regard for people's safety,” he said.