Bloomberg, Nov.1, 2013: […] Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is being told by his own party that Japan’s response is failing. Plant operator [Tepco] alone isn’t up to the task of managing the cleanup and decommissioning of the atomic station in Fukushima. That’s the view of Tadamori Oshima, head of a task force in charge of Fukushima’s recovery and former vice president of Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. […] [There’s] a growing recognition that the government needs to take charge at the Fukushima station […] “If we allow the situation to continue, it’ll never be resolved” [said Sumio Mabuchi, a government point man on crisis in 2011].
ABC News Radio, Oct. 31, 2013 (At 2:00 in):
Prue Bentley, host: How long do you think they have to undertake these measures [at Unit 4]?
Richard Broinowski, adjunct professor at University of Sydney, Australia’s former ambassador to South Korea, Mexico and several other countries: It’s not a matter of how long. There’s no length involved in this particular accident. It’s going to go on almost to infinity I’m afraid. It’s a matter of getting [the fuel rods] out in the safest way possible. And while they remain there in this perilously unsafe and unstable cooling pool, there’s always the danger of an earthquake knocking the thing over […] so the sooner they do it the better. But there’s no sort of deadline, it’s just a matter of trying to keep your fingers crossed, and have them taken out and somehow brought to earth and contained somewhere before another disaster strikes.