Major Japanese Newspapers Deride Tepco Claim of Cold Shutdown at Fukushima

Japan's media dismiss Noda's cold shutdown declaration. Japan Today December 17 http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japans-media-dismiss-nodas-cold-shutdown-declaration

[Excerpted] "But major newspapers blasted the government view.

“‘The state of cold shutdown’ is easy on the ears but the actual state does not allow optimism,” the liberal Asahi Shimbun said.

“It is as if a patient came out of a life-or-death condition but remained hospitalised,” it said, warning fears remain that problems at the power station could worsen again.

“Molten fuel is still in reactors and its cooling depends on tentatively-built facilities. There is no change to the situation in which the normal cooling systems do not work.” [end excerpt]

Also see Prime Minister "Noda's declaration on Fukushima met with cynicism" Japan Today http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/nodas-declaration-on-fukushima-met-with-cynicism

[Excerpted] Takashi Sawada, vice chairman of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, a pro-nuclear group of academics and industry specialists, said Noda’s declaration of cold shutdown was not a dramatic shift.

Sawada stressed that the use of the term “cold shutdown” did not indicate that all four disaster-hit reactors were now completely normal.

Environmental campaign group Greenpeace dismissed the announcement as a “smokescreen”...

...Akira Yamaguchi, a nuclear physicist at Osaka University, said that the government’s definition of cold shutdown is disputable..." [end quote]