REMEMBERING FUKUSHIMA

It's been over five years since the earthquake and resulting tsunami killed over 15,000 people and caused extensive damage, including a meltdown, at the Fukushima nuclear generating plant.  The world watched as dozens of employees, probably being sentenced to death by radiation poisoning, scuttled around the debris in a desperate effort to quell the fires and contain the deadly nuclear material.  A seemingly endless chain of mistakes in attacking the situation ensued while the Japanese government initially flatly refused any and all help from the United States or anyone else. 

And then, there was silence... a virtual news blackout.  What was once a daily, if not hourly international concern over radioactive plumes of steam encircling the globe and of irradiated waters seeping into the ocean has all but faded into oblivion.  Fukushima rarely gets even a dribble of mention anymore, anywhere. 

But, is the danger gone?  

There are still piles of highly radioactive molten fuel rods burning uncontrollably beneath the three damaged buildings that housed the reactors.  There are as of yet no plans, or even agreed upon strategies for dealing with containment and removal.  The contaminated water cannot be cleansed and attempts to contain it failed, so it is now being stored in an ever-growing tank farm already exceeding 1,000 giant tanks.  The highly radioactive nuclear fuel rods remain on-site and will eventually have to be removed; but how remains an elusive issue.  

Not only has radiation leaked into the seawaters offshore from the plant, but the local forests have been heavily contaminated as well.  As a result, mutant life forms are popping up throughout the area and birth defects occur routinely.  In the meanwhile, the Japanese government continues to clamp down on any publicity regarding the site, probably in the mistaken belief that what people don't know won't hurt them.