Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Japanese Disaster : Where Did the Spent Rods Go?

[Jim Conforti (lndshrk]

On 3/17/2011 6:23 AM, Hunter N. Schultz wrote:
> Not all the of the fuel rods are stored above the reactors...
> 
> The misinformation about this event is huge.
> 
> It's not Chernobyl. Anyone suggesting same is either a moron, fear
> monger, or simply spouting off at the mouth. Ignorance abounds.
> 
> Some of this stuff was Jr. High School science.

  (Not so much meant as a reply to Hunter, just as a general
   bit of information and clarification in my typical politically
   incorrect [and long] style - strap in)

  Unfortunately, most of the misinformation came from the
  darlings at TEPCO and the Japanese gov't.

  If you know anything about reactor physics, or can even
  google the course of events at TMI back in the 70's - a core
  melts very quickly if exposed a just few hours in the first
  day after a SCRAM - because short-lived fission products emit
  whole grundle of heat (8-900MWe reactor initially produces
  about 60MW of heat energy AFTER being "shut down" in 2-3 days
  this reduces to "about" 0.6MW - the "2 to 3" days is because
  we don't know the burnup numbers of the various fuel bundles)

  While TEPCO/JG were issuing denials, coremelt was confirmed
  in the first day by the presence of the gamma spike of 137Cs
  (actually the 662keV spike of 137Ba(m)).

  It took a bit to get a request into a old friend who just
  happens to be a hospital health physicist now on Honshu.

  Five minutes, one portable radionuclide analyzer - wham.

  Oh Gee, 137CS out in the wild - no nuclear bombs going off
  and that means CORE MELT.

  With apologies to NASA, Lovell and Swigert:

  "Fukushima, we have a problem"

  From the minute that happened, all the "steam" they were
  releasing was contaminated with fission products.

  Things like 131I, 135I, 137Cs, 90Sr, 129I, 85Kr, 135Xe, etc.

  Things with half-lives from minutes to 100's of years mostly.

  Then came the hydrogen explosions.

  Which blew off the tops of the buldings.

  What's on the top floors?

  A significant number of "spent" and "temporarily removed"
  fuel rods in fuel bundles are stored in the pools up on
  the tops of buildings.

  "The presentation shows an abundance of spent fuel rods at
   the plant, taking up 84% of the available space in the various
   storage facilities.

   The dry storage facility was completely full, while a big cooling
   pool away from the reactors contained 6,291 rods - the maximum
   allowed being 6,840.

   This left a further 3,450 rods distributed between the pools in the
   six reactor buildings.

   How they were distributed is not known.

   But it suggests that the pools in buildings 4, 5 and 6 may have been
   very full at the time of the earthquake, given that any older stored
   rods would have been supplemented by those taken from the reactors
   for maintenance."

  So reports the BBC.

  Jim's commentary to "How they were distributed IS NOT KNOWN"

  BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  You're telling me that TEPCO doesn't have RECORDS of how their SPENT
  FUEL is distributed in the pools for criticality control?

  They very damn well KNOW how they are distributed - which is why
  they are quoted in the same article as saying:

  "More remarkably, Tepco warned on Wednesday: 'The possibility of
   re-criticality is not zero'."

  Oh wait - well they must KNOW, hmmm.. another LIE.

  So, they are stuck between letting the fuel rods go dry and melting,
  and adding water which cools the rods, but also moderates neutrons
  into the "thermal" range which possibly causes fission criticality
  and huge neutron release.

  Oh goodie.

  Yup, move along people, nothing to see here - everything is fine.

  I don't watch Alex Jones, and Fox news has been "denying" this event
  from day one with idiots like "Dr." Jay Lehr from the Heartland
  Institute - and so many "general M.D.'s"

  How about getting a Health Physicist on the air?

  Someone familiar in the bio-accumulation of radio-Iodine isotopes
  first in cows, then in milk, then in the thyroids of our children.

  Not shills from ANS or the NRC who want to minimize fears to avoid
  a big recoil against the nuclear power industry.

  Not "General M.D.s" who rarely deal with radioisotopes.

  Pfft - The WHO said there were "only" 50,000 excess cases of thyroid
  cancer in children from Europe and the former Soviet republics due to
  the incident at Chernobyl.

  Here, let me be even more politically incorrect:

  1) You are being LIED to by TEPCO and the Japanese Gov't.

  2) You are likely being LIED to by your OWN government.

  3) You are being LIED to by the vast majority of the "Media" who
     are using "MORONS who interview well on TV" to discuss issues they
     are COMPLETELY unqualified for.  Along with those unqualified
     bastards are the shills, "denier liars" from the nuclear industry.

  There is my $1.52 (0.02 + dollar devaluation) on the Fukushima event.

  Jim