nuclear-news

Gundersen soon after 3/11: Photo shows nuclear fuel is exposed to air at Fukushima Unit 4 fuel pool — Clean path for plutonium to escape offsite (VIDEO)

http://enenews.com/gundersen-soon-after-311-image-shows-nuclear-fuel-is-exposed-in-fukushima-unit-4-fuel-pool-clean-path-for-plutonium-to-escape-offsite-video

Published: February 23rd, 2013 at 7:43 pm ET
By ENENews

Follow-up to today’s report: Japan TV animation shows spent fuel rods being exposed in Fukushima pool (VIDEO)

Title: New Images Reveal Nuclear Fuel Rack Exposed to Air
Source: Fairewinds Energy Education
Date: March 30, 2011
h/t Arnie Gundersen
Emphasis Added

Fairewinds Chief Engineer, Arnie Gundersen: This picture is undated, but when it was taken, it clearly shows that there is no water in the pool. If you look, there’s a green, a long, green device. That’s the refueling bridge. Normally that glides along on rails above the pool, and the pool is that crystal-clear water that you’re used to seeing. Well, after the explosion it has collapsed and is lying in the pool. Between seconds thirty-three and thirty-seven on this video you can see little boxes. The little boxes are just to the left of that green bridge. The boxes are in air. Those boxes are the top of nuclear fuel racks. They’re supposed to be under thirty feet of water. They’re not.

What that means to me is a couple things. First off, the top of the nuclear fuel is exposed. Perhaps all the nuclear fuel is exposed, but certainly the top is. You can see steam coming up, but not from the top of the fuel. [From] down further in the cavity there is steam coming up. So, the water that they’re spraying in is hitting the nuclear fuel and creating steam, but it’s not filling that swimming pool. The water has two purposes: cooling, but also shielding. That means the fuel is unshielded. […]

The other thing it means to me is that the nuclear fuel itself is extraordinarily hot, and the plutonium inside can become volatile. I spoke yesterday, in the [I mean] earlier update [today], about cerium being discovered offsite and plutonium being discovered, and the fact that the nuclear fuel pool does not have water in it, to me, indicates that it might be a clean path for those heavy elements to be escaping from the building and being discovered offsite. I would recommend, based on this, that the evacuation zone should be pushed back further […]

Watch the original video of Unit 4 fuel racks exposed here

February 24, 2013 - Posted by arclight2011 | Uncategorized