ABC Radio (Australia), June 9, 2014:
- Mark Willacy, ABC correspondent: Since the accident [at Fukushima Daiichi], the nuclear cores have melted, they’ve gone – leached through some of the pressure vessels and going through what they call the containment vessels… In fact, they don’t even know exactly where those melted radioactive cores are. They know they’re down there somewhere. […] Tepco said “We think one’s eaten through about a meter of the concrete containment vessel, but we can’t be sure.”
- Full ABC interview available here
WBUR, June 9, 2014:
- Ken Buesseler, a senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: They can’t get into a lot of those buildings and the core where the fuel rod meltdown occurred. You don’t really know how easy it would be to extract any of the most concentrated materials… The solution then to either entomb, leave in place, or remove can’t be made until you know more. I’m hearing 30, 40, 50 years and really open ended as to whether they can really remove the radioactive materials from the site — Although we have to somehow stabilize. Getting water out of those buildings is important so you can actually make those assessments. In the short term, they’ve got some serious issues with just what’s already been stored and leaking on that site, and helping the public understand what’s going on.
- Full WBUR broadcast here