Fukushima news

[Bennyboy]

54. Fukushima's Fuel Rod Removal Plan - BBC (cross posted)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024011594

Fukushima's fuel rod removal plan
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes - BBC
11/8/13



Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from inside Reactor Building 4 at Fukushima

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I have recently received a new sophisticated radiation monitor sent from London, which has now had its first outing in the field. You can point it at things and it tells you how many "counts per second" of radiation the object is giving off.

Inside reactor building four the readings were constantly low - not surprising when you remember that reactor four had no meltdown. The reactor was offline when the tsunami struck. That is not true with reactors one, two and three.

As our bus left reactor four and drove along the sea front, I pointed my new monitor out of the window towards reactor building three. Suddenly the needle started to spike - 1,000 counts per second, then 2,000, 3,000, finally it went off the scale.

There, outside the bus, just a few dozen meters away is the real dead zone, a place where it is still far too dangerous for anyone to go. No human has been inside reactor three since the disaster. To do so would be suicide. No-one knows when it will be possible to go in.

When I asked the same experts how long it would be until reactors one, two and three could be dismantled, they shook their heads. When I asked them where they thought the melted reactor cores were, they shook their heads again.

Tokyo Electric Power Company was happy to show us reactor four, but please do not ask what they intend to do with reactors one, two and three.

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