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Situation Critical at
Fukushima
Fukushima Nuclear Crisis
Magnetic Field Detector
May 1, 2012
To: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
An Urgent Request on UN Intervention to
Stabilize the Fukushima Unit 4 Spent Nuclear Fuel
Recently, former diplomats and experts both in
Japan and abroad stressed the extremely risky condition of
the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool and
this is being widely reported by world media. Robert
Alvarez, Senior Scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies
(IPS), who is one of the best-known experts on spent nuclear
fuel, stated that in Unit 4 there is spent nuclear fuel
which contains Cesium-137 (Cs-137) that is equivalent to 10
times the amount that was released at the time of the
Chernobyl nuclear accident. Thus, if an earthquake or
other event were to cause this pool to drain, this could
result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly
10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl
accident.
Nearly all of the 10,893 spent fuel assemblies
at the Fukushima Daiichi plant sit in pools vulnerable to
future earthquakes, with roughly 85 times more long-lived
radioactivity than released at Chernobyl.
Nuclear experts from the US and Japan such as
Arnie Gundersen, Robert Alvarez, Hiroaki Koide, Masashi Goto,
and Mitsuhei Murata, a former Japanese ambassador to
Switzerland, and, Akio Matsumura, a former UN diplomat, have
continually warned against the high risk of the Fukushima
Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool.
US Senator Ron Wyden, after his visit to the
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on 6 April, 2012,
issued a press release on 16 April, pointing out the
catastrophic risk of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4, calling for
urgent US government intervention. Senator Wyden also sent a
letter to Ichiro Fujisaki, Japan’s Ambassador to the United
States, requesting Japan to accept international assistance
to tackle the crisis.
We Japanese civil organizations express our
deepest concern that our government does not inform its
citizens about the extent of risk of the Fukushima Daiichi
Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool. Given the fact that collapse
of this pool could potentially lead to catastrophic
consequences with worldwide implications, what the Japanese
government should be doing as a responsible member of the
international community is to avoid any further disaster by
mobilizing all the wisdom and the means available in order
to stabilize this spent nuclear fuel.
It is clearly evident that Fukushima
Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool is no longer a
Japanese issue but an international issue with potentially
serious consequences. Therefore, it is imperative for the
Japanese government and the international community to work
together on this crisis before it becomes too late. We are
appealing to the United Nations to help Japan and the planet
in order to prevent the irreversible consequences of a
catastrophe that could affect generations to come. We
herewith make our urgent request to you as follows:
1. The United Nations should organize a Nuclear
Security Summit to take up the crucial problem of the
Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent nuclear fuel pool.
2. The United Nations should establish an
independent assessment team on Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 and
coordinate international assistance in order to stabilize
the unit’s spent nuclear fuel and prevent radiological
consequences with potentially catastrophic consequences.
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