Nuclear countries glean lessons from Japan's disaster
They did not explain it, but experts watching overseas immediately understood what it meant: the situation was so dire that the plants would never be saved. The priority now was to prevent a runaway meltdown.
As the level of radiation around the Fukushima complex topped safe levels, Japanese authorities began making preparations to hand out iodine — used to protect the thyroid against radioactive exposure — in the affected areas.
The following day, Sunday, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the Fukushima incident ranked as a 4 under the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (1-7). By comparison, Three Mile Island was a 5 while Chernobyl was a 7.
Authorities were worried, but still optimistic that they could bring the plant back under control.
The drama in Japan began just a day after the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors had wrapped up its quarterly meeting in Vienna. Set up to “promote safe, secure and peaceful nuclear technologies” the IAEA has on staff some of the world’s leading experts on nuclear safety.
It quickly became apparent that the agency was struggling to keep up with what was unfolding on the other side of the world. The IAEA put out a series of short statements over the weekend, though at one point its website crashed and for several hours the press department had to refer journalists to statements posted on its Facebook page. It took three days for Director General Yukiya Amano, himself Japanese, to hold a news conference to address the emergency.
“Atomic contamination is threatening from Japan and what do you hear from the Vienna-based IAEA: dignified silence,” a popular Austrian tabloid wrote. “The shutters are rolled down, just like for a weekend off.”
When the markets in Tokyo opened on Monday, the response was inevitable: Japanese stocks fell more than six percent. On Tuesday, they would finish another 10 percent lower. The yen has spiked against the dollar this week as traders unwind their positions and Japanese investors pull out of foreign markets because they’ll need the money at home.
On Monday a second hydrogen blast rocked the plant. TEPCO again said the explosion had not damaged the primary containment vessel. But by this stage even the stoic Japanese had begun to question the information they were receiving.
“They don’t tell the truth. It’s in their DNA,” said Taro Kono, a member of the Liberal Democratic party and a long-time opponent of nuclear power.
Nuclear power analysts,
