By John LaForge
On Wed., March 11, the Coalition for a Nuclear- Free Mississippi River commemorated the 15th anniversary of the triple reactor meltdowns in Fukushima, Japan by hosting a “No More Fukushimas! Close the Monticello Nuclear Reactor” rally on the walkway of the large Lake Street Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
The rally piggybacked on the very long-running weekly anti-war vigil on the bridge, which was launched in 2003 by Women Against Military Madness, or WAMM.
The effort to raise awareness of Monticello’s relationship to Fukushima succeeded in bringing out the local news. With signs and banners demanding protection of the public drinking water the Mississippi provides, several rally participants spoke to a reporter from local KARE 11 News, and Nukewatch’s John LaForge ended up in a segment of the evening news calling for the reactor’s shutdown.
Xcel Energy’s 55-year-old Monticello reactor ― 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis/St. Paul ― has the same design as the three devastated Fukushima units.
Two people drove to the rally from the city of Monticello and reported that they’d taken photos of an oil slick on the surface of the Mississippi, which resulted from a leak of lubricating oil from the reactor which began March 9. While Xcel Energy first announced that the oil would not reach the river, the company was forced to admit later that it had.
Local organizations representing thousands of residents in the Twin Cities and surrounding communities, including Monticello, launched the Coalition to raise awareness of the dangers of nuclear power following the massive 829,000-gallons leak of cooling water from the reactor in 2022. The Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011 is often ignored by the media.
At Fukushima, three reactors suffered complete core meltdowns and hydrogen explosions. It was the world’s worst industrial disaster and the second-worst accidental radiation release in history ― after Chernobyl. Following the March 11, 2011 earthquake (Japan’s worst ever) and its resulting tsunami, Fukushima’s GE “Mark-1” boiling water reactors ― identical to the Monticello unit ― suffered smashed reactor foundations, and a station black-out, or total loss of electric power.
A station black-out is a severe reactor crisis, because it stops the circulation of cooling water. This loss of cooling, if not reversed, causes fuel melting, massive radioactive releases, and ⸺ from Fukushima and from Chernobyl ⸺ radioactive “fallout” which spreads around the world.
Several common natural disasters could lead to a station blackout at Monticello: severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, and straight-line windstorms (derechos); floods, wildfires, and blizzards ― or some combination ― could cut power to the station. Back-up emergency generators are on hand to power cooling water circulation, but they are also subject to failure, as happened in Fukushima.
To learn more, see nuclearfreemississippi.wordpress.com or write to the Coalition at nuclearfreemississippi@zohomail.com.
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