PRESS CONFERENCE
Ikko Nakatsuka, Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office / Senior Vice Minister for Reconstruction
Hiroshi Asahi, Director-General for Energy and Environmental Policy, METI
"Progress Status towards the Decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Units, TEPCO"

The speech and Q & A will be in Japanese with English interpretation

"Is Reactor 4 Safe?"

Fourteen months after the Fukushima nuclear crisis began, the official line from operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. is that the Daiichi plant has reached a state of 'cold shutdown' This means that the nuclear fuel in the plant's four damaged reactors is no longer overheating or spewing out large quantities of radiation. But many are skeptical of this assessment, with concern focusing particularly on the state of reactor number 4.

The inventory in the spent fuel pool of reactor number 4 is the largest among those of all the reactors destroyed in the March 2011 disaster. Analysts have repeatedly warned about the scale of the threat from this spent fuel, which is immensely radioactive. Japan's former Ambassador to Switzerland, Murata Mitsuhei, told a Public Hearing in the House of Councilors in March that another accident there could cause a global catastrophe "the like [of which] we have never before experienced." He added: "Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries."

There are 1,532 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool located 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground, and a common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, is located some 50 meters from reactor four. None of those rods are protected by a containment vessel and are open to the air, making them extremely vulnerable to another large seismic event.

Two government experts have agreed to come to the FCCJ and explain the progress being made toward decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi reactors 1-4. One of their priorities will be to reassure foreign correspondents, and the world, about the health of the No.4 reactor building. Come along and hear what they have to say

Ikko Nakatsuka, Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office / Senior Vice Minister for Reconstruction

Hiroshi Asahi, Director-General for Energy and Environmental Policy, METI