Interviews and precis by:
Dr, Robert Jacobs, of the Hiroshima Peace Institute, Japan.
Paul Dorfman, researcher at the University of Warwick, England.
Professor Gerry Thomas, of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank Research Instute, Ukraine.
Arnold Gunderson, adviser at Fairwinds Associates Inc. Vermont USA.
Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Instute of Energy and Enviramental Research, Washington DC USA.

Published: 26 April, 2011, 17:40 edited: 27 April, 2011, 02:21.

While TEPCO is removing contaminated water from reactor 2 of the troubled Fukushima-1 nuclear plant and after successful tests has started spraying resin to prevent the spread of radioactive dust, experts fear deterioration of the crisis.

With Chernobyl's 25th anniversary reminding the world of the terrifying consequences of nuclear safety negligence, many eyes have turned to the continuing crisis in Japan. Dr. Robert Jacobs, an associate professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, says that the crisis at Fukushima-1 nuclear plant is far from being resolved.

The plant, which was hit by a powerful earthquake and tsunami on March 11, and several aftershocks, was not designed to withstand such massive disasters, according to Dr. Jacobs. The plant now is only relatively stable, given that the roofs over the reactors are holding but could collapse at any time.

Dr. Jacobs is critical of the Japanese government saying it withheld important information about the state of affairs at Fukushima-1.

"There was just recently an assessment of the situation at Fukushima by a group of international nuclear experts. The picture they painted was far grimmer than the picture that is painted by TEPCO or by the Japanese government. Both the Japanese government and TEPCO have strong interest in downplaying the problem, downplaying the threat and downplaying the impact. There is no doubt that we will need an independent inquiry," says Dr. Jacobs.

Dr. Jacobs points out that it is taking TEPCO, the operator of the crippled plant, longer to resolve the crisis than it took to smooth down the Chernobyl disaster. By this period of time, the Chernobyl crisis had been resolved and there was the clean-up of the site. Currently in Japan we do not know what the end game will be, nor do we know how the operation will go, says Dr. Jacobs.

Japan's government has announced that it would help pay compensation for loses incurred by the Fukushima disaster. In effect, tax payers are now going to pay for the damages caused by TEPCO.

"The situation with the nuclear industry is that the nuclear plants are uninsurable, so everywhere around the world the nuclear plants are insured by public money, not by private money, by taxpayers," concludes Dr. Jacobs.