Tomoyuki Taira (member of the House of Representatives) and Yukio Hatoyama (a former prime minister) in an article (Nature 480, 313–314,15 December 2011) recommend that the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant needs to be opened to independent scientists not affiliated with Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) or TEPCO, the plant’s operator.
They argue that the events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant following the earthquake and tsunami are of crucial importance for the future of atomic energy globally. In particular they are concerned about whether re-criticality occurred, whether the explosions that occurred at the plant after the earthquake were nuclear in origin, and whether molten fuel has broken through the reactor’s base potentially creating more serious environmental contamination.
A group of representatives from the Japanese Diet will be releasing an independent report that argues that key pieces of evidence remain incomplete, that we do not yet know whether re-criticality occurred, and that to answer these questions, independent scientists must have access to the plant. They further argue that the only way to do this and deal with the issue of compensation is to nationalize the plant.
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