Reply #98: the "50" were heroes

[divvy]

No, I didn't mean zinc .., I typed "zirc" which my iPad automatically changes to "zinc." Spell check is a nuisance sometimes. I wish it would ask me to make the change, but it doesn't. you are right that the Japanese were up against an extremely difficult situation... extremely difficult. I really don't understand their reluctance to take charge... I think that too many people were evacuated... I think they lost control of their people, because the place they were to go was damaged (some people may have been killed, because the "walked" into a tsunami)... Bottom line, it was their duty to respond promptly to the crisis. Any suggestion by them that someone else should is really bad on many levels (I can understand asking for help... I can even understand asking for a crisis manager... I can't understand wanting to pull their people and have somebody else address the problem). Finally, there were things they could have done to reduce the damage done to the plant. It seems like all they could do was address the most urgent of their problems... and other things that needed done were not addressed for days when they too became urgent problems. If they needed technical or manpower help, they should have been asking for it early. Japan had a lot of nuclear plants that didn't "melt down"... there were a lot of nuclear trained personnel at those other plants... they should have had GE and Toshiba on the phone immediately (and if they needed satellite phones, they should have asked their government or military to get them to the command center and site). Bottom line is that there apparently was total confusion and no plan... that is not what a good post accident response is supposed to look like. You can say it was perhaps understandable, but you train so that doesn't happen. I would like to say that there was nothing they could have done, but I think that U4, U5, and U6 did not have to meltdown... but it was inevitable when their operating crews left them unattended. None of those fuel pools had to overheat to the point of fuel melt, but it was inevitable when you let them set there for days without adding any water to them. The "50" are heroes, but more was required. It wasn't their fault, but it was somebody's. Japan has people that could have helped a lot. Days after the event started there should have been hundreds, if not thousands of people supporting them... doesn't seem to have happened. I am surprised and disappointed. Their country and the nuclear industry depended on them (the utility and its regulator oversite) to do their jobs to a high level of professionalism.