The Nation: Fukushima's Spent Fuel Rods Pose Grave Danger

[flamingdem]

http://www.thenation.com/article/159234/fukushimas-spent-fuel-rods-pose-grave-danger

NOTE: I see this article is dated March 15 .. so the question might be whether they
really have this under control now

Here is a slideshow from IAEA dated 4/8 on the status of the units, fuel pools getting
water injection

http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/summary-of-reactor-unit-status-8-april-2011-0700-utc

--- snip

But there is another, potentially far more dangerous problem: the spent fuel rod pools that sit right next door to the reactors. The storage pools are packed with radioactive uranium, rise several stories above ground and are always close to the reactor, thus facilitating easy transfer of the fuel rods. Their name—especially “spent” and “pool”—conveys calm dissipation. But spent fuel rod pools are actually highly radioactive, very unstable, extremely dangerous and, compared with reactors, not well supported, contained or looked over.

The spent rods give off considerable amounts of “decay heat” and thus must be submerged in constantly circulating water. Expose them to air for a day or two, and they begin to combust, giving off large amounts of radioactive cesium-137, a very toxic, long-lasting, aggressively penetrating radioactive element with a half-life of thirty years. When cesium-137 it enters the environment, it essentially acts like potassium and is taken up by plants and animals that use potassium. (For the record, that includes you.)

The explosions at reactors No. 1 and No. 3 blew apart the respective containment buildings but left the vessels intact. Or so we think. But what did the blasts do to the nearby spent fuel rod pools? On Monday night the news in Japan confirmed that the pool next to reactor No. 3 lost its roof.
“I’ve been studying overhead photographs of Fukushima. It is very disturbing,” said Robert Alvarez, formerly a senior policy adviser at the Energy Department under Clinton and now a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies.

“The steel wall of the pool seems to show damage. All the surrounding equipment, including the two cranes, has been destroyed. There is smoke coming from reactor No. 3, and steam coming from the spent fuel pool next to it. That indicates that the water in the pool is boiling. And that means the spent fuel rods are getting hot and could start burning.” MORE AT LINK...

[AtheistCrusader]

1. This is pretty ancient.

At least by news standards. All four storage pools in question are visible from the outside world, the buildings were so heavily damaged.

[flamingdem]

2. IAEA slideshow from today

See the yellow boxes for information about the spent fuel pools. It's not under
control if they have to constantly inject water, imo.


http://www.slideshare.net/iaea/summary-of-reactor-unit-status-8-april-2011-0700-utc

[AtheistCrusader]

3. That link seems to have been trampled right off the internet.

"Are the pools stable? Or leaking and boiling?"

That's what I based my comment on. I think the answer is definitively 'no, and yes'.

Certainly boiling, probably leaking. But they haven't brought large enough amounts of water to bear to really definitively answer if the pools are leaking yet, it's possible they just aren't gettting enough water onto the rods to quench them, and start filling the pool.

But they are probably leaking. Certainly the upper rim of the pools are in bad shape, from the photos I've seen.

Edit: Link is working now. I hate their fucking goddamn cryptic updates. "Fresh water Spraying is complete" WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?

Did they top off the pool?
Did they plan to spray for 2 hours and accomplished that, with no change in the pool level?
Did they plan to spray 10,000 gallons and accomplished that with no measurable effect?

what the hell does 'complete' mean? Dinner time?

[flamingdem]

4. haha I think it's being written from the imagination of a Tepco worker in Tokyo

It is vague.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[kristopher]

5. It means the FRESH water spraying - a planned activity - has been accomlished.

They are handling the crisis with planning that involves spreading available resources across a wide range of problems. The best term for something like this is organized chaos.
I've worked command and control in emergency situations before and frankly this is beyond my comprehension. A massive earthquake, followed by the tsunami then an ongoing series of nuclear fission reactor meltdowns lasting months in the midst of aftershocks larger than most calamitous earthquakes.

And you are upset because you can't read their events log? Take a break, clear your head and then return to duty.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. The person writing the event log is probably sitting in a cubicle in Tokyo.

This information is pretty important. People need it to assess if they should be running for the hills. It's almost as bad as no information.

I understand and expect some fog of war around what is happening at the plant, but why give specifics on some details, and vague as hell on the important stuff? Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[kristopher]

8. It is probably from the command center.

And that is almost certainly no further away than Fukishima Daini.

That entry makes perfect sense to me, but I'm following what is happening closely (on NHK satellite) - just as those whom the log is intended are. I don't want to say I think they are being open and forthcoming, because I don't think that at all. I think that the flow of information is being slanted on behalf of the nuclear industry at the government/media level though, more than at the operational level. I also think information is getting spottier, not better.
Finally I know that I'm also frustrated and I have access to more than most, so people who are suspicious and angry have, in my estimation, some degree of legitimate cause for their feelings towards this industry.

An opinion piece from today's Mainichi Shimbun:

A society that depends on nuclear energy is just like a house of cards
A tsunami triggered by the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake not only destroyed towns and ports in northeastern Honshu, but also demonstrated various problems involving Japan's post-war energy policy.

The nuclear power policy that the government had disguised as rock-solid has actually proved so vulnerable. Prosperity built around such a policy is fragile. This has illustrated a wide perception gap between people on the seriousness of the crisis.

...The former (5 term Fukushima) governor pointed out that the biggest problem involving the national government's nuclear power policy is that bureaucrats and power suppliers are under the wrong impression that nuclear power generation is absolutely safe and should be promoted by all means and that they keep problems involving such plants a secret. He thus asserted that efforts to invite electric power companies to build nuclear power plants in sparsely populated areas in a bid to create jobs for local residents are nothing but addictive drugs for regional communities.

...The crisis has clarified that a society that depends heavily on electricity generated largely by nuclear power plants -- which Japan as a post-war economic and technological superpower has achieved -- is just like a house of cards. Japanese leaders as well as members of the general public should be aware of this.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20110409p2a00m0na001000c.html