Impaired visibility due to particles in spent fuel pond at Fukushima no 4 reactor

NHK: ‘Particles’ impairing visibility in Fukushima pool — Will try to remove spent fuel Tuesday, said to be “one of most dangerous operations ever attempted in nuclear history” — Tepco concerned about sabotage, warns media about filming http://enenews.com/nhk-particles-impairing-visibility-in-unit-4-pool-attempted-removal-of-spent-fuel-starts-tuesday-described-as-one-of-most-dangerous-operations-ever-attempted-in-nuclear-history-tepco-c

NHK, , Nov. 25, 2013: [TEPCO] says it will begin removing highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel from one of its reactor buildings on Tuesday. […] TEPCO says […] sand and fine particles in the storage pool impaired visibility. The utility says it will use a pump to clear the pool of particles for the next round of transfers. […] The spent fuel assemblies are highly radioactive so the operation will require extra caution. This will be the first removal of spent nuclear fuel […]

Bangkok Post, Nov. 24, 2013: World community needed at Fukushima […] Last week workers at Fukushima successfully removed the [unused] nuclear fuel rod assemblies from a cooling pool suspended high above ground at Reactor No 4 in what has been described as one of the most dangerous operations ever attempted in nuclear history. […] Experts say that if the fuel rods come too close to each other during the operation there is a chance of a nuclear chain reaction that could spread to all the fissile material. […]

TEPCO,  Nov. 21, 2013: […] we have noticed that some news media released videos, taken from the air, of the on-premise transportation from the Unit 4 Reactor Building to the Common Pool Building […] Some of those videos contain information (such as the transportation schedule, a route of the transportation, and activities of security guards) the disclosure of which conflicts with “Measures To Be Taken for Physical Protection of Specific Nuclear Fuel Material” stipulated in the Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law. The regulatory agency is also aware of this matter, and instructed us to request the media to act with attention to physical protection. As we have already requested the media members on many occasions, in view of physical protection, please refrain from taking pictures and videos of the physical protection facilities such as the building entrances and exits, fences, sensors, and cameras as well as the cask transportation currently conducted. [*Physical protection: To protect nuclear materials and facilities against the theft or unauthorized diversion of nuclear materials and against the sabotage of nuclear facilities]

More: CNN: Tepco only wanted to show us Unit 4, strict rules about what we could film (VIDEO)

November 27, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Fukushima 2013