REMOVE TEPCO BEFORE REMOVING CRITICAL FUKUSHIMA FUEL - WHICH COULD START CHAIN REACTION - SAYS EXPERT

TEPCO NOT UP TO THE JOB -

IT HAS BUNGLED PROCESS SINCE THE START OF THE FUKUSHIMA DISASTER.

 

REUTERS  - The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will as early as this week begin removing 400 tonnes of highly irradiated spent fuel in a hugely delicate and unprecedented operation fraught with risk.

 

If the rods - there are 50-70 in each of the assemblies, which weigh around 300 kg (660 pounds) and are 4.5 meters (15 feet) long - are exposed to air or if they break, huge amounts of radioactive gases could be released into the atmosphere.

 

The hazardous removal operation has been likened by Arnie Gundersen, a veteran U.S. nuclear engineer and director of Fairewinds Energy Education, to trying to pull cigarettes from a crushed pack.

 

"Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date," independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt wrote in a recent World Nuclear Industry Status Report.

Read more - http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/11/12/us-japan-fukushima-removal-idINBRE9AB15L20131112

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Watch video with recognized nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen as he debunks point by point claims made by TEPCO, the company in charge of the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant. 

 

He stresses that the company is not up to the job, and the removal of critical fuel rods could result in a much greater catastrophe.

Video - http://fairewinds.org/podcast/remove-tepco-removing-fuel

 

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ENENEWS - Gundersen: Fuel already “very close to going critical” at Unit 4 — Must be extraordinarily careful about starting chain reaction (VIDEO)

 

Sources have told me — within Tokyo Electric — that they have no confidence that there’s any boron left between these fuel bundles. And they need boron to prevent the nuclear fuel from becoming a self-sustaining chain reaction, a criticality.

 

So without boron in the plates — there are plates between these fuel bundles — but they got extraordinarily hot from not being cooled off the better part of a couple weeks, and they also were exposed to salt water. So that combination likely stripped out the boron. So the only thing Tokyo Electric can do is throw all sorts of boron into the water. Then pull the fuel. […]

 

I ran a division that built fuel racks, and these high density fuel racks like they have a Fuksuhima are very close to going critical anyway. […] Normally its .95, as high as .99, that means there’s a 1% margin before a self-sustaining chain reaction can occur.

 

The problem there is that the fuel pool doesn’t have the ability to remove the heat if these nuclear fuel bundles turn back.— a criticality means they turn back on outside of the nuclear reactor. So they have to be extraordinarily careful that they don’t start a chain reaction in the fuel pool […]

 

If they get close together you can cause a chain reaction, and what will happen then is the water will begin to boil violently.

 

Hopefully Tokyo Electric is going to be monitoring this really closely and the first indication of water bubbling, they push the rods back in.

 

The problem though is that the rack is distorted and as you pull it, you’re pulling way more friction than it was designed to handle. It’s a real problem.

Source - http://enenews.com/gundersen-fuel-racks-very-close-going-critical-unit-4-be-extraordinarily-careful-about-starting-chain-reaction-video


Arnie Gundersen's website Fairewinds - http://fairewinds.org/


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