Japan lacks decommissioning experts for Fukushima
Source: AP-EXCITE
By YURI KAGEYAMA
TOKYO (AP) - Japan is incapable of safely decommissioning the devastated Fukushima nuclear plant alone and must stitch together an international team for the massive undertaking, experts say, but has made only halting progress in that direction.
Unlike the U.S. and some European countries, Japan has never decommissioned a full-fledged reactor. Now it must do so at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant. Three of its six reactors melted down after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, making what is ordinarily a technically challenging operation even more complex.
The cloud over Japan's capacity to get the decades-long job done has further undermined the image of the nuclear industry with the public. Opinion surveys show a majority of Japanese are opposed to restarting 50 reactors that were put offline for safety and other checks in the aftermath of the disaster. Japan has been forced to import oil and gas to meet its power needs, burdening its already feeble economy.
"Even for the U.S. nuclear industry, such a cleanup and decommissioning would be a great challenge," said Akira Tokuhiro, a University of Idaho professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering who is among those calling for a larger international role at Fukushima.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131215/DAAMKF2O2.html
In this Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2013 photo released by the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, members of International Expert Group (IEG) confer with a Tokyo Electric Power Co. official, center, as they inspect the decommissioning progress near the Unit 1 building at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, during the first IEG meeting held from Sept. 23 - 27. It took until August this year, nearly two and half years after the tsunami, for Japan to set up the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, to bring together ideas, both inside and outside Japan, on Fukushima decommissioning and encourage communication. (AP Photo/The International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning)
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No one even knows for sure where their melted-down, (melted-through) corium blobs are.
The radiation readings are so off the chart at three of the destroyed reactors that it is instantly lethal to get close for a look. Even their robot's electronics are getting fried.
They estimate that it will be 40 years to get a handle on this mess and that's IF the technology is invented to deal with it.
This road has not been gone down before.
Epic FUBAR.
because Epic FUBAR is the most appropriate use of the word epic that I've seen in some time. sadly. 
