Japanese Nuclear Expert: Melted reactor cores not in one piece at Fukushima, as gov’t claims — I think nuclear fuel scattered everywhere, stuck to walls — Chernobyl-like sarcophagus may be needed — Nothing has been done, by time they deal with this I’ll be long dead
ENENews.com
June 12th, 2014
Radio Forum #72, May 24, 2014 — Translated by DISSENSUS JAPAN, June 10, 2014:
Jiro Ishimaru, host: They don’t even know where the melted fuel is. What is the current situation of the melted fuel?
Hiroaki Koide, professor at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute: Nothing has been done. I don’t think the melted fuel is sitting in one piece as TEPCO and the government imagine. Probably, many pieces are scattered everywhere in the reactor vessel. For example, there are pieces stuck to the wall, I think. If, for example, they somehow can collect 50 pieces of debris they can’t collect the other 50; if many workers are forced to be exposed to radiation to do this ineffective job, I think it’s better to just contain it like the Chernobyl sarcophagus.
Ishimaru: It is going to be a long road to decommissioning…
Koide: The government says it will take 40 years, but that is not going to be enough at all. When they finish, I will have been dead for a long time.
