FIRE JUNE 2011
FIRE NOV 2012? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDYjx_VRAO8&feature=youtu.be
The Fukushima nuclear complex is composed of
Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini. The two stations are approximately six
miles apart. Fukushima Daini has four nuclear reactors and spent fuel pools. According
to a November 16 report by Tokyo Electric Power Company titled, “Integrity
Inspection of Dry Storage Casks and Spent Fuel at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station,”[i] as
of March 2010 the Daini site held 1,060 tons of spent uranium fuel. Fukushima
Daiichi has six nuclear reactors; each reactor has a spent fuel pool. The
Daiichi site also has a common spent fuel pool. The total spent uranium fuel
inventory at Daiichi in March 2010 was reported as 1,760 tons. The 2010 report asserts that approximately 700
spent fuel assemblies are generated every year.[ii]
The report specifies that 3,450 assemblies are stored in each of the six
reactor’s spent fuel pools. The common spent fuel pool contains 6291
assemblies. The amount of mox fuel stored at the plant has not been reported.
One source suggests that unit 3’s reactor core contained a range of 164 to 32
mox assemblies.[iii] The
low-end estimate of 32 mox assemblies is from France’s Areva, which provided
the fuel for unit 3. As the French Fukushima 3/11 Watchdog group points out,
the low-end estimate of 32 mox assemblies translates into 5.5 tons of fuel
containing more than 300 kg of plutonium: “300 kg is therefore equivalent to
300 billion lethal doses.”[iv]
Release of the written transcripts of the March 16
audio files of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Operation Center
Fukushima Transcript provides some insight into the complexities of the
disaster. Conversations about the plant status clearly indicate that spent fuel
pools 3 and 4 were damaged and burning.[v]
On page 62 of the transcripts, speakers are recorded as stating that in
additions to units 1 and 2 “boiling down,” the spent fuel pools in 3 and 4 are
having "zirc water reactions," indicating that the fuel cladding was
burning because the used rods were no longer submerged in water. A speaker
asserts that there are “no walls” on unit 4 spent fuel pool: “The explosion
leveled the walls, leveled the structure for the unit 4 spent fuel pool all the
way down to the to the approximate level of the bottom of the fuel. So, there
is no water in there whatsoever.” Later in the transcripts, a speaker
reiterates this report on the status of spent fuel pool number 4: “our
understanding of the unit 4 spent fuel pool is it has been destroyed on the
side such that it will get no water above the bottom of the active fuel for in
effect the sides of the reactor building are gone…the sides are gone.…” The overall
status of the plant is summarized on page 215 by another speaker: he states the
status of the plant has progressed" to at least "2 reactors [in
meltdown], multiple spent fuel pools and maybe 4 reactors and 4 spent fuel
pools...." The prognosis is considered grim: “We’ve just not seen any
mitigation of any of the events and we would take all the spent fuel pools and probably
all the four reactors into the final conclusion because we’ve not seen any
mitigation….[vi]
[i]
It
is worth noting that although this report was produced on 10/26/2010 the file
properties indicate the document was modified on 3/13/2011: Integrity
Inspection of Dry Storage Casks and Spent Fuels at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station. November 16, 2010. http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/accidents/6-1_powerpoint.pdf.
[ii]
Integrity
Inspection of Dry Storage Casks and Spent Fuels at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power Station. November 16, 2010. http://www.nirs.org/reactorwatch/accidents/6-1_powerpoint.pdf.
[iii]
Fukushima
311 Watchdogs. MOX fuel-Corium-Plutonium in Fukushima Daiichi, http://www.fukushima311watchdogs.org/biblio/9/Mox%20fuel-corium-plutonium%20in%20Fukushima%20Daiichi.pdf.
[iv]
Fukuhima
311 Watchdog http://www.fukushima311watchdogs.org/biblio/9/Mox%20fuel-corium-plutonium%20in%20Fukushima%20Daiichi.pdf.
[v]
U.S Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Official Transcript of Proceedings of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi ET
Audio File (2011, March 16). Page 62, http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1205/ML12052A108.pdf
[vi] U.S
Nuclear Regulatory Commission Official Transcript of Proceedings of Japan’s
Fukushima Daiichi ET Audio File (2011, March 16). http://pbadupws.nrc.gov/docs/ML1205/ML12052A108.pdf
Thank you, Majia! Better find my boots. My geiger is still at 43 CPM, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was I131 floating around the Bay Area, too. NoNukes
ReplyDeleteI think there is definitely stuff in the air we shouldn't be breathing...
ReplyDeleteHow much of it, is what worries me....
I've started on the Lugol's iodine again:
ReplyDeletehttp://optimalprediction.com/wp/new-radioactive-plume-moving-through-us-and-canada/#comment-2712