Will Fukushima Bankrupt Japan?

A nuclear catastrophe could cost ten trillion dollars or more (many times more than the insurance which nuclear power operators are required to carry) … and could even bankrupt a country.

Taipei Times notes today that, according to a Japanese author:

A professor from the University of Tokyo has even estimated that it would cost up to ￥800 trillion [U.S. $10 trillion dollars], amounting to approximately 10 years of the national budget, if the soil and road surface of radiation-affected areas are to be cleaned up.

The damage is so much that the Japanese government would go well beyond bankruptcy, Liu said.

Of course, the Japanese government’s entire strategy from day one has been to cover up the severity of the Fukushima accident.

Given that Japan either won’t or is unwilling to pay for a real clean up of the Fukushima radiation, it appears that the people of Japan will pay for the accident with their health for generations to come.

Indeed, Fukushima, the financial crisis and other major disasters like the BP Gulf oil spill were all caused by the 1%: (1) making insane bets that nothing would blow up, and (2) cutting every possible safety measure to make more money.

And exactly like the toxic financial assets that the big banks dumped onto the national balance sheets of Greece, Italy, America and elsewhere – and ultimately the people – the Japanese government and Tepco are dumping the cost of the Fukushima disaster on the backs of the Japanese people in decreased health, vigor and prosperity.

Tokyo Governor Tells Residents to “Shut Up” Instead of Complain About Burning of Radioactive Debris

I noted in August:

Nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen says in a new interview that the Japanese are burning radioactive materials. The radioactivity originated from Fukushima, but various prefectures are burning radioactive materials in their terroritories.

Gundersen says that this radioactivity ends up not only in neighboring prefectures, but in Hawaii, British Columbia, Oregon, Washington and California.

Now Tokyo is starting to burn radioactive debris from other prefectures.

Ex-SKF (the odd name comes from the fact that the writer is a former trader in the ProShares UltraShort Financials ETF known as “SKF”) pointed out last week:

NHK reports that the first container from Miyako City in Iwate Prefecture arrived by rail in JR Tokyo container terminal in Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo at 7AM on November 3. It was promptly transported to one of the contractors selected by the Metropolitan government, and the debris was sorted, and crushed into smaller pieces. Flammable debris will go to the TEPCO’s subsidiary (Tokyo Rinkai Recycle Power) located on the landfill and be burned after November 6, and non-flammable debris will be simply buried in the same landfill.

Given that Tokyo is directly getting hit by radiation from Fukushima, and that Fukushima is still far from any stable shutdown – and is still apparently undergoing nuclear reactions (and see this, this and this) – burning radioactive debris just adds insult to injury.

Ex-SKF subsequently reported (edited to delete Japanese language references):

Shintaro Ishihara, irascible 79-year-old governor of Tokyo who almost single-handedly decided to do this mind-boggling project to “assist the recovery” of Iwate, mentioned the complaints that his government has received over the issue in the press conference on November 4 afternoon.

According to Fuji TV news clip on November 4, the governor said,

“Shut up” is all we need to say to these complaints.

***

Fuji TV news also says that 3,000 complaints have been sent to the Tokyo Metropolitan government, over 90% of them protesting against the debris from disaster-affected areas to be transported, processed, crushed and burned and buried in Tokyo Bay.

And today, Ex-SKF reports that the Tokyo governor’s attitude towards his citizens has filtered down to the Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Environment as well:

***

First,

“It is a fate for children to accept radiation contamination.”

***

Then,

Ms. Iwanaga of Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Environment was also bad. [She said] “Radioactive materials would disperse [by burning the debris] but it would be safe; there was no problem at all because it had been agreed and approved in the Metropolitan Assembly which represents the residents of Tokyo; there was no system whereby the residents have a direct say in the matter.” To top it off, she hung up on me.

Remember, Japan is a very homogenous society where peer pressure to conform can be intense. For example, last month it was reported that mothers who expressed concern about their kids playing outside in potentially radioactive conditions are called “monster parents” by their peers.

Source: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/tokyo-starts-burning-radioactive-waste-from-other-areas-tokyo-governor-tells-residents-to-shut-up-and-stop-complaining-about-it.html