Living in Fantasy

“The effect of contaminated water is completely blocked in the area of 0.3 square kilometers within the harbor,” told again Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, after he visited First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant on Thursday. Did he really believe that story? Moreover, he asked Tokyo Electric Power Company to dismantle two reactors of the plant, which had not severely damaged but been stopped its operation. Did he think those reactors could be resumed? His attitude on Fukushima problem is based on fantasy.

Abe told reporters that he made three requests to the president of TEPCO, Naomi Hirose, during his visit to the site. Those were a) to reserve enough budget for dismantling four damaged reactors, b) to tackle on cleansing contaminated water in the tanks with time expiration, and c) to dismantle the fifth and sixth reactors which have been out of work.

The first two requests are moderate to deal with this problem. However, nobody has cared those two reactors, believing they could not be resumed and must be dismantled. Located within a mile from the rest of four reactors in the site, the fifth and sixth are unreachable with high radiation. People in Fukushima require all reactors to be dismantled. It has been Second Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant that was focused on for the future of nuclear power in Fukushima. The fifth and sixth in First Fukushima had not been the talking point. For sufferers of the accident, Abe’s request of dismantling was just a political performance.

Abe’s insistence on “completely blocked” appeared in the exchange with reporters. The fact is, as Chief Cabinet Secretary had admitted, contaminated water is and has been flowing to the outer sea from the harbor even today. What Abe said was simply that no obvious effect had not been confirmed. Abe, the government of Japan and TEPCO are incompetent in stopping the flowing to the sea. Asahi Shimbun reported that a worker of the site witnessed contaminated water splashed out from a seam of the tank and other workers tried to shut it soaked in the shower.

It is irresponsible for a leader to shy away from what is happening in the site. Contaminated water is not blocked, but just diluted. Abe needs to say that we fortunately have not seen the negative effect of it. It is stopping the dissemination of radiation for him to do as soon as possible, rather than dealing with reinterpretation of constitution, determination of consumption tax hike or negotiation of free trade agreement in the Pacific Rim.