Spent fuel Rod fire could be worse than Chernobyl

reply to post by XtraTL


very well written post!
Thank you

while I will agree it is very hard to compare all the events..I will try my best to explain my point

less than 1g of the 600g of material were transformed to energy (you can compute this from Einstein's famous E = mc^2 equation). The rest of the fissile material probably evaporated and was pushed up into the atmosphere, most of which rained back down on the city and in nearby fallout.

I will not dispute what you said at all

following is the figures for 1 fuel rod assembly

Uranium/assembly, kg = 183.3

source

The Fukushima Daiichi plant has seven pools for spent fuel rods. Six of these are (or were) located at the top of six reactor buildings. One “common pool” is at ground level in a separate building. Each “reactor top” pool holds 3450 fuel rod assemblies. The common pool holds 6291 fuel rod assemblies.

that would be 632,385kg of uranium for one pool alone...I will leave it to you if you want to do further math..

Yes, a reactor explosion and fire *can* release more radiation than a nuclear bomb. But it is highly questionable to state that the reactors in Japan have done or will be able to do that.

This is why I wish we could get better news out of Japan..That Questionable part is the hard part

The dosages of radiation at Chernobyl were fatal within minutes. They were clearly thousands of times higher than has ever been the case at the Fukushima reactors.

Again this is where I wish we could get numbers from the site...we are at the mercy of what is been reported

Rather high levels radiation, over 1,200 microsieverts per hour

source

Chernobyl was 300 Sieverts per hour near the core
source

but from japan we don't have this kind of info yet
but

Max radiation levels recorded at Fukushima plant yesterday 400.00 mSv

Exposure of Chernobyl residents who were relocated after the 1986 explosion 350.00 mSv

Source

A 30km exclusion zone remains to this day, and that is after more than half a million "liqiudators" (people with shovels and wheelbarrows) carted away the radioactive remains of the disaster and after the reactor was entombed in concrete.

And in Japan we have a 30km Zone as well.....and the U.S. Military has made that a 50km zone for U.S. troops

At this point, to compare the accident in Japan with Chernobyl is just folly

I disagree..because one is over and can be studied and one is still on going..

From what I am gathering it looks like things are either on the brink of improvement or those in charge are in the midst of a last-ditch effort PR campaign to ease fears before an all out nightmare scenario unfolds. I just wish the authorities would be honest to the people. Once again it has been proven that corporations cannot be honest and responsible when handling a disaster.

Update: Reactors 5 and 6 seem to be getting power.

www.bbc.co.uk...

reply to post by kimar

From what I am gathering it looks like things are either on the brink of improvement or those in charge are in the midst of a last-ditch effort PR campaign to ease fears before an all out nightmare scenario unfolds

I hope for one ..but fear the other

Thanks

reply to post by kimar

Update: Reactors 5 and 6 seem to be getting power.

well latest news is..power lines seem to be hooked up..but they are checking things out before flipping the switch

Fascinating:

One of the reactors spews black smoke, a thermal image is out showing a way too hot roof and hot spots and the US aircraft carrier is leaving port as a precaution, iode pills are distributed to US military personal in Japan, first radioactive isotopes have been detected in Alaska and Canada, milk and lettuce in Japan is radiated even if it'S not close to the affected areas, the IAEA talks about changing desasster procedures because information is spreading way too fast... and nobody here does really care about!

Fascinating...

Thermal Image here:
www.n-tv.de...

reply to post by Xingili


Your URL goes to nirvana ...

I don't get it? If a spent fuel rod has THAT much energy left, why can't it be used in some way. I have no idea how, just seems like nuclear geniuses should be able to come up with something useful for spent rods.

reply to post by jiggerj

I don't get it? If a spent fuel rod has THAT much energy left, why can't it be used in some way. I have no idea how, just seems like nuclear geniuses should be able to come up with something useful for spent rods
[/quote

Very good question..
that's because they are too slow for Max production..you know us humans...we have to be running at max all the time



In fact..the fuel rods are now something they are using left over weapons grade plutonium for..
you would think as advanced as we are as a human race..we would find a way of dispose of our trash]

The situation with the spent fuel rod pools is probably the biggest reason the media is trying to downplay this disaster.

It might wake the pubic up to what a huge potential for disaster surrounds them in these nuclear power plants.

I posted on other forums the new with links that Japan has used up all its boron, which is used to stop neutron flow and control reactors, trying to deal with this disaster. S Korea has sent additional boron, and apparently France.

The situation might be so bad, that entombing these plants might not work. Hard to tell at this point in time.

reply to post by poet1b

It might wake the pubic up to what a huge potential for disaster surrounds them in these nuclear power plants

I really hope you are right....

However I have my doubts

Originally posted by jiggerj
I don't get it? If a spent fuel rod has THAT much energy left, why can't it be used in some way. I have no idea how, just seems like nuclear geniuses should be able to come up with something useful for spent rods.

Oh they've found lots of ways to use the spent rods...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I don't get it? If a spent fuel rod has THAT much energy left, why can't it be used in some way. I have no idea how, just seems like nuclear geniuses should be able to come up with something useful for spent rods.

They can be used:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Oh they've found lots of ways to use the spent rods...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

DU makes up a large part of spent nuclear fuel, but it would be too much work to separate it from the rest of the waste, so they don't. DU munitions are sourced from uranium enrichment waste, not spent fuel.

reply to post by kimar

From what I am gathering it looks like things are either on the brink of improvement

I hate to say it but it looks like that improvement was short lived.

here is a video from Fairewinds Energy Education Corporation about the exposed spent fuel pool in reactor 4
link

Just wanted to mark in this thread
Japan To Raise Nuke Accident Severity Level to Highest 7 from 5

same level as Chernobyl and still no end in sight..

source