nuclear-news

Urgent need to remove nuclear fuel rods from unsteady reactor No.4

Nuclear Expert: Fuel rods are “in a jumble” at Fukushima Unit 4 pool; Unclear if they are cracked — US pressing Japan on removal, fears terrorist activity at plant (VIDEO) http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-fuel-rods-are-in-a-jumble-at-fukushima-unit-4-pool-unclear-if-they-are-cracked-us-pressing-japan-on-removal-fears-terrorist-activity-at-plant-video

Telegraph,, Nov. 6, 2013: “Did you ever play pick up sticks?” asked a foreign nuclear expert who has been monitoring Tepco’s efforts to regain control of the plant. “You had 50 sticks, you heaved them into the air and than had to take one off the pile at a time. “If the pile collapsed when you were picking up a stick, you lost,” he said. “There are 1,534 pick-up sticks in a jumble in [sic] top of an unsteady reactor 4. What do you think can happen? I do not know anyone who is confident that this can be done since it has never been tried.” Even now, it is not clear whether any of the rods, containing transuranic and transplutonic elements, are cracked, he said. […]

Others have issued even more dire warnings, with Charles Perrow, a professor emeritus at Yale University, warning: “The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas, including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site, the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.”

Inside Japan’s stricken Fukushima unit four nuclear reactor

Nikkei, Nov. 7, 2013: [Tepco] will begin removing spent nuclear fuel from the storage pool at the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s No. 4 reactor this month, a company official said at a press corps gathering at the site Wednesday. […] The U.S. and other countries have been pressing Japan to securely store the spent fuel, fearing another earthquake or terrorist activity. […] the upper part of the No. 4 reactor building was severely damaged, causing a large amount of rubble to fall into the pool. Concerns have arisen that the fuel may be damaged, making it even less certain whether the work will proceed smoothly.
Watch Bloomberg’s report on Unit 4 here

November 8, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Resources -audiovicual