Eight Questions for Areva regarding Fukushima pollution containment

I have just sent this to press@areva.com, since Areva are now helping Tepco to clean the water that is flooding the basement at Fukushima.

You can email them too if you like. One email is likely to be ignored. 100 are less likely to be ignored.


Dear Areva Press Officer

I congratulate your company on commencing work on removing radionuclides from the water in the basement of the Fukushima Daichi reactors, though I find it difficult to understand why it has taken so long to initiate this action, as 43 days have now passed since the earthquake and tsunami.

I have a number of questions about the matter, and I would be very grateful if you would forward this email to the right quarters for response.

1. What is the composition of the steam coming out of Reactor2?
2. If it contains radiation, why has that steam not been captured and treated already?
3. Are there plans to capture this steam?
4. When R1,3 and 4 are covered as per Tepco's plans, will the contained air be extracted and filtered?
   
5. Why will it take so long to pump out the basement of R2? What is the block to putting more pumps in place?
6. What plans are in place to minimise air and groundwater pollution in the event of the corium escaping containment and coming into contact with groundwater?
7. Is it possible to remove the spent fuel pools from the reactor buildings in order to facilitate control?
   
8. What would be the consequences of abandoning attempts to achieve cold shutdown and simply burying the reactors?
   

Many thanks for your trouble in this matter. I appreciate that you are all busy, but you will appreciate that good communication with the public is vital in this situation. You will also appreciate that a comprehensive and early reduction of emissions to levels as low as practically achievable from Fukushima are in the long term interests both of the populations affected by the plumes, but also of the nuclear industry.

Sincerely


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