Japan making Hail Mary bid to avert ‘Chernobyl-like’ disaster: expert
U.S. nuclear experts warned Saturday that pumping seawater to cool a quake-hit Japanese nuclear reactor was an “act of desperation” that may foreshadow a Chernobyl-like disaster.
Several experts, in a conference call with reporters, also predicted that regardless of the outcome at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, the accident will seriously damage the nuclear power renaissance.
“The situation has become desperate enough that they apparently don’t have the capability to deliver fresh water or plain water to cool the reactor and stabilize it, and now, in an act of desperation, are having to resort to diverting and using seawater,” said Robert Alvarez, who works on nuclear disarmament at the Institute for Policy Studies.