nuclear-news

The truly fearful state of Fukushima’s nuclear reactors

http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=6282    Arnold Gundersen with the latest on Fukushima, including the perilous worldwide consequences if reactor no. 4 collapses

Doomed Planet For A Failed Species? Fukushima’s Tragic Nuclear Consequences Richard Wilcox Activist Post  29 Sept 12“……….Gundersen was also recently interviewed by the intrepid Helen Caldicott, medical doctor and long time anti-nuclear campaigner (12). The entire interview is highly recommended listening, not only for its incredible technical information, but also to enjoy the brilliance and humor of two of our most venerable activists.

Where are the leagues of other nuclear engineers speaking out with such expertise? There are not many. Gundersen has intimate knowledge of what is happening at the FNPS and one wonders how he gets his information. Other than that in the public domain are there at least some concerned officials feeding him data? Gundersen tends to speak conservatively and there is certainly room for other interpretations of the situation. He may be sugar-coating the truth at times, but I think he rarely or never exaggerates the dangers.

These are main points summarized from Gundersen and Caldicott’s conversation:

• Unit 4 is being cleaned up so that Tepco can put in place the crane to remove the fuel rods. This work will not be completed before 2015 or 2016. Tepco plans to construct a building on top of what is currently there at Unit 4 in order to put in place a huge crane for removing the rods, which will then be placed in casks on the ground.
• There are concerns that the fuel rods will be damaged, but ideally they can just pull them out and put them into dry cask storage. There is a chance they will not be removed easily and get “jammed” when they try pull them out. This could take years!
• It is a very long, involved process. “They are taking way too long.” This process has to be repeated for the other reactor fuel pools as well. In the meantime we have to hope there is not another large earthquake, even though geologists think there is a likely chance of one.
• The fuel in Units 1, 2, 3 is melted down to the bottom of the reactors or “lying on the concrete” at the foundation of the reactor buildings. It took ten years to remove fuels from a melted reactor at Three Mile Island after its disaster in the US in 1979. TMI was a minor accident compared to Fukushima.
• The three reactor units at Fukushima are so highly radioactive that a million bq/liter is measured in water in surrounding buildings. That means that in the reactor buildings themselves the radiation would be exponentially higher.
• Gundersen believes the radiation is so high in the reactor areas that workers cannot do the job. The only “solution” will be to pour concrete on top of the units while “walking away for three hundred years, obviously monitoring it.” This could happen in a few years from now.
• However, Caldicott points out that the radiation will seep down into the water table for the rest of time. Arnie agrees: there is no good solution. Although “the solution would be to bore holes from underneath, and constantly pull water from out from under the building so it can be treated.” This would have to be done for a couple of hundred years to prevent contamination of the Pacific Ocean.
• If Japan’s economy shrinks, cracks, contracts and or collapses due to a variety of factors, will they have the knowledge and money to carry on with this project? Gundersen estimates the cost of the Fukushima disaster will be 500 billion dollars. The Japanese taxpayer will pay for it.
• Weighed against Japan’s rapidly aging and declining population the Japanese will be carrying a huge economic burden. The detrimental health effects from radiation will effect a substantial proportion of Japan’s population into the mists of time but will be covered up and hidden from public view, even as they perish…… http://www.activistpost.com/2012/09/doomed-planet-for-failed-species.html

September 29, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2012