Masao Yoshida, an example of global responsibility, has died from esophageal cancer. Yoshida was in charge of the Fukushima 1 reactor when it was swamped by the massive tsunami and lost both primary and backup power, causing its cooling system to fail. Facing nuclear meltdown and catastrophic fallout, Yoshida remained at his post and fought to bring the rogue reactors under control.
A number of government and industry reports suggest that had Yoshida and others not remained at their posts, the total failure of the Fukushima complex could have triggered a chain reaction, with other reactors failing and all of Tokyo facing evacuation in the midst of a tsunami laced with unprecedented levels of nuclear radiation release.
Yoshida died of complications of esophageal cancer that he developed in the interim. TEPCO, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns and manages the Fukushima-Daiichi reactors, says the cancer would likely take 5 to 10 years to develop from radiation exposure, but there is no precedent for the levels of radiation exposure Yoshida would have experienced and the direct link to esophageal cancer, a cancer of soft tissues.
Many believe Yoshida is the latest victim of the Fukushima disaster. Given TEPCO’s near 100% record of understating numbers related to radiation release, then “updating” those figures to show a far worse scenario than previously suggested, there is extreme skepticism as to the power company’s claims. It is widely believed that the radiation exposure from the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl is ultimately what killed Yoshida.
With massive levels of radiation now spanning the Pacific Ocean, threatening marine habitats and fisheries across half the planet, there is news of a massive new release of carcinogenic cesium isotopes. According to Japan Times:
Tepco said Tuesday that toxic radioactive substances in groundwater have rocketed over the past three days and engineers do not know where the leak is coming from.
Samples taken Monday showed that levels of possibly cancer-causing cesium-134 were more than 90 times higher than on Friday, at 9,000 becquerels per liter, Tepco revealed.
Levels of cesium-137 stood at 18,000 becquerels per liter, 86 times higher than at the end of last week, the utility said.
It is expected it will take three to four decades just to fully secure and decommission the Fukushima-Daiichi plant. Groundwater levels of radioactive tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, have also been soaring, according to new reports. They now stand at 600,000 becquerels per liter.
The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear disaster was a grave and cataclysmic warning of the perils of nuclear power generation. While some believe nuclear power is a necessary technological interim stage, on our way to a full-spectrum clean-energy economy, others believe the massive investment required to make nuclear power both safe and affordable hampers development of much more productive, much more economically efficient clean renewable technologies.
Quipu.cc shares this story in order to keep the global public abreast of major developments in relation to what is still a very precarious situation of global relevance, at the Fukushima-Daiichi plant. But we also hope that better information about fallout from the disaster and the alternative technologies we can adopt will make it unnecessary for anyone to face what Masao Yoshida so courageously confronted, at his post inside of Fukushima 1.