About 7,000 people work here, building new water storage tanks, moving radioactive debris to a new disposal site, and erecting enormous scaffoldings over reactor buildings torn apart by the huge hydrogen explosions that occurred during the accident.Īt the plant’s entrance, a sign warned: “Games like Pokemon GO are forbidden within the facility.” Tepco is keen to portray the plant as one big industrial cleanup site. “Now that we have seen it, we can make plans to retrieve it.” “Until now, we didn’t know exactly where the fuel was, or what it looked like,” said Takahiro Kimoto, a general manager in the nuclear power division of the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or Tepco. Six and a half years after the accident spewed radiation over northern Japan, and at one point seemed to endanger Tokyo, the officials hope to persuade a skeptical world that the plant has moved out of post-disaster crisis mode and into something much less threatening: cleanup. Now that engineers say they have found the fuel, officials of the government and the utility that runs the plant hope to sway public opinion. Scientists and engineers built radiation-resistant robots like the Manbo and a device like a huge X-ray machine that uses exotic space particles called muons to see the reactors’ innards. A Corruption Scandal: Japan’s prosecutors accused Dentsu, an advertising company that was one of the driving forces behind the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, of conspiring to evade the public bidding process leading up to the Games.Īs officials became more confident about managing the disaster, they began a search for the missing fuel.But is it criminal? A viral video of a Japanese young man caught in the act puts the notion to the test. ‘Sushi Terrorism’: Many would agree that drinking out of a restaurant’s communal soy sauce bottle is disgusting.Lawmaker Removal: The upper house of Japan’s Parliament almost unanimously voted to expel an eccentric YouTuber who won a seat last year.It was the first visit of its kind in 12 years. Relations With South Korea: In the latest sign of a diplomatic thaw, South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, arrived in Japan for a summit with Fumio Kishida, the Japanese prime minister.Stephanie Nakajima contributed to this article. He has taught courses on journalism at Sophia University and is a coordinator of Japan Focus. David McNeill writes for The Irish Times, The Independent and other publications. He is also a board member of the Washington, D.C.-based Polaris Project Japan, which combats human trafficking and the exploitation of women and children in the sex trade. Jake Adelstein is an investigative journalist, consultant, and the author of Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter On The Police Beat In Japan. The one thing they haven’t provided is the truth. Says Hasuike: “What really happened at the Fukushima Daiicihi Nuclear Power Plant to cause a meltdown? TEPCO and the government of Japan have provided many explanations. All of this despite the fact that shaking experienced at the plant during the quake was within it’s approved design specifications. However, eyewitness testimony and TEPCO’S own data indicates that the damage was significant. No one knows exactly how much damage was done to the plant by the quake, or if this damage alone would account for the meltdown.
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