Environment

Japanese officials, who continue to stonewall even the IAEA, have finally admitted something that we all knew the instant we saw Reactor #3 blow a column of debris a thousand feet straight into the air: the core is damaged. It was unthinkable that the maze of pipes and wires required to be fully intact in order to both have pumps running and coolant not leaking could have survived that insult.

First the news and then the analysis.

I know that I have been almost exclusively focused on the Fukushima situation even as the Middle East is erupting and the West has declared war on another small, oil-rich country. I wish I had time to analyze both situations with equal attention. Since I don’t, I’m focusing more on the situation in Japan, which I see is still the more dire of the two.

Analysis of another ‘shaky-cam’ video released yesterday reveals what appears to be a startling hot-spot in the rubble of Reactor #1, which we will examine below.

The Fukushima nuclear situation is the most drastic nuclear event of our lifetimes, and could easily surpass Chernobyl in terms of its impacts on the world economy, to say nothing of the people living near and downwind of the reactors.

I am simply aghast that the reactor situation almost entirely disappeared from the front pages of the US news media over the March 20-21 weekend, to be replaced by (comforting?) images of military and technical superiority against Libya.

While I am quite concerned about the timing, strategy, and intent that lies behind this sudden support for the Libyan rebels (Wag The Dog, anyone?), it is clear to me that what happens in Japan next has a greater chance of impacting most of the rest of the world, to say nothing of Japan itself.

Here’s an example of the latest news, such as it is, about the reactor situation in Japan:

Note: I am simply going to continuously add material to this article on Japan and the impact on the world economy so that we don’t ‘lose’ a very rich discussion that resulted from the alert by splitting it into a different thread.

Friday, March 18, 2:12 P.M. 

First, the fact that it’s been 24 hours without any significant reported deterioration of the heat or radiation emitting from the Fukushima complex hints that the situation has possibly hit bottom and/or stabilized.  No news is good news.  One view would be that the spent fuel has had plenty of time to do whatever it was going to do, and so far there are no signs that it’s gone critical or burst back into flames. Perhaps it’s done all it’s going to do.

Also, NHK is reporting that electricity has been restored and that the water pumps serving Reactor #3 have been restarted. That’s an enormous relief if it’s true. Let’s keep our fingers double crossed that it is.  

That’s the good news.

Now for the bad news.