'Trust Us': World's Most Perilous Nuclear Operation Set To Begin

“No one here trusts Tokyo Electric.”

That’s how Reuters, quoting former local resident Ichiro Kazawa, concludes their latest reporting on the pending and enormously dangerous operation scheduled to begin inside the crippled Reactor 4 building at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

“Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date.”

As Common Dreams has previously reported, the operation to remove the fuel rods from Reactor 4 has nuclear experts sounding every alarm bell they can find in order to draw attention to the potentially devastating results if something goes wrong with the effort.

And as Kazawa’s comments make clear, very few find trust in the promises coming from the plant’s owner, the Tokyo Electric Company (or TEPCO).

According to Reuters:

The exact start date of the operation is being kept secret from the public, says TEPCO, because of “security” concerns.

 However, according to longtime anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman, the real concern should be not knowing what’s going on at Reactor 4 while TEPCO and nuclear industry apologists assure people they have things “under control.” Pushing back, Wasserman recently called for an end to the secrecy surrounding the operation.

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