“They’re just sitting there. Waiting for disaster to strike again.”
Nadia couldn’t believe her eyes. Even the Soviet Union knew better. They’d dumped a gazillion tons of sand over the reactor and then built a metal tomb around it. Granted, the tomb was less than robust and it was falling apart now and in the process of being replaced, but at least they’d followed a path of common sense.
Bobby asked her for the binoculars and took a look himself. “No sarcophagus,” he said. He, too, sounded incredulous. “Why is there no sarcophagus?”
“The response of the people of Japan to the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster has been strength and solidarity. The response of the government to the cleanup and nuclear risk has been weakness and cronyism. Cleanup efforts have been given to large Japanese corporations that have no experience with nuclear matters. Small companies and foreign companies were encouraged to make proposals. None were accepted.
“On July 22, 2013, more than two years after the disaster, the government finally confirmed what local fisherman had been saying all along. The plant was leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean since the tsunami. It took all that time for the government to admit that TEPCO—Tokyo Electric Power—was still lying about plant conditions. The Prime Minister ordered the government to step in. A month later, seven hundred metric tons leaked out of a storage tank and they stepped in to secure that, too.
“If the building crumbles for any reason, if it is weaker than the government says, if there is another earthquake of a magnitude seven or higher, the water would pour out, the fuel rods would burn, and you would have an oxygen-eating fire that could not be put out with water. That would lead to the kind of contamination science has never contemplated. It could make Japan uninhabitable, and with the oceans and wind, lead to global disaster.”
“The kind the Western press predicted,” Nadia said.
“This time,” Nakamura said, “they would be right. Emergency workers would not be able to get close to the fire. Robots would melt. There would be no immediate solution to putting out the fire. Radiation would leak into the air and sea and could not be stopped.”
“Why don’t they move the rods to someplace safe?” Bobby said.
“They cannot dislodge the individual rods. It is too dangerous. The only way to move them is to move the entire fuel rod canister.”
Bobby’s voice picked up urgency. “Then why don’t they do it?”
“It would take a crane that can lift one hundred tons. The only crane that could do that was destroyed in the disaster. This is the truth. These are the stakes. This is what Genesis II wanted you to understand. This is how important the formula may soon be to Japan. To the entire world. We must not let personal agendas get in the way of the greater good.”
Nadia remembered the original e-mail from Genesis II, and the phrase that sounded so familiar. “Fate of the free world,” she said.
“Yes,” Nakamura said. “If reactor number four collapses, the fate of Japan and the world will depend on this formula.”
Fate of the free world now had two meanings. Initially it suggested that if the wrong people got their hands on it, they could use it to gain an upper hand in a nuclear confrontation. Now it also referred to the imminent risk of an epic nuclear catastrophe in Japan, one that could destroy the world. With each passing moment, the formula’s importance was growing, just as surely as the people who came in contact with it were dying.
“Chornobyl and Fukushima,” Nakamura said. “Fukushima and Chornobyl. They are forever linked in history as the only level seven nuclear disasters the world has known. In Chornobyl, it was reactor number four that melted down and caused the first international catastrophe. In Fukushima, it is reactor four that poses the threat of becoming the first global catastrophe. You
Nadia couldn’t believe her eyes. Even the Soviet Union knew better. They’d dumped a gazillion tons of sand over the reactor and then built a metal tomb around it. Granted, the tomb was less than robust and it was falling apart now and in the process of being replaced, but at least they’d followed a path of common sense.
Bobby asked her for the binoculars and took a look himself. “No sarcophagus,” he said. He, too, sounded incredulous. “Why is there no sarcophagus?”
“The response of the people of Japan to the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster has been strength and solidarity. The response of the government to the cleanup and nuclear risk has been weakness and cronyism. Cleanup efforts have been given to large Japanese corporations that have no experience with nuclear matters. Small companies and foreign companies were encouraged to make proposals. None were accepted.
“On July 22, 2013, more than two years after the disaster, the government finally confirmed what local fisherman had been saying all along. The plant was leaking radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean since the tsunami. It took all that time for the government to admit that TEPCO—Tokyo Electric Power—was still lying about plant conditions. The Prime Minister ordered the government to step in. A month later, seven hundred metric tons leaked out of a storage tank and they stepped in to secure that, too.
“If the building crumbles for any reason, if it is weaker than the government says, if there is another earthquake of a magnitude seven or higher, the water would pour out, the fuel rods would burn, and you would have an oxygen-eating fire that could not be put out with water. That would lead to the kind of contamination science has never contemplated. It could make Japan uninhabitable, and with the oceans and wind, lead to global disaster.”
“The kind the Western press predicted,” Nadia said.
“This time,” Nakamura said, “they would be right. Emergency workers would not be able to get close to the fire. Robots would melt. There would be no immediate solution to putting out the fire. Radiation would leak into the air and sea and could not be stopped.”
“Why don’t they move the rods to someplace safe?” Bobby said.
“They cannot dislodge the individual rods. It is too dangerous. The only way to move them is to move the entire fuel rod canister.”
Bobby’s voice picked up urgency. “Then why don’t they do it?”
“It would take a crane that can lift one hundred tons. The only crane that could do that was destroyed in the disaster. This is the truth. These are the stakes. This is what Genesis II wanted you to understand. This is how important the formula may soon be to Japan. To the entire world. We must not let personal agendas get in the way of the greater good.”
Nadia remembered the original e-mail from Genesis II, and the phrase that sounded so familiar. “Fate of the free world,” she said.
“Yes,” Nakamura said. “If reactor number four collapses, the fate of Japan and the world will depend on this formula.”
Fate of the free world now had two meanings. Initially it suggested that if the wrong people got their hands on it, they could use it to gain an upper hand in a nuclear confrontation. Now it also referred to the imminent risk of an epic nuclear catastrophe in Japan, one that could destroy the world. With each passing moment, the formula’s importance was growing, just as surely as the people who came in contact with it were dying.
“Chornobyl and Fukushima,” Nakamura said. “Fukushima and Chornobyl. They are forever linked in history as the only level seven nuclear disasters the world has known. In Chornobyl, it was reactor number four that melted down and caused the first international catastrophe. In Fukushima, it is reactor four that poses the threat of becoming the first global catastrophe. You
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