Nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods

[TacticalPeek]

Nuclear plant searching for missing fuel rods

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Posted: 8:41 PM EDT (0041 GMT)

MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) -- Two highly radioactive fuel rods from a Vermont nuclear plant are missing, plant officials said Wednesday.

Engineers were searching the spent fuel pool at the Vermont Yankee plant for the small rods, which were removed from the reactor in 1979.

One of the missing rods is about the size of a pencil. The other is about the thickness of a pencil and 17 inches long.

snip

In 2002 a Connecticut nuclear plant was fined $288,000 after a similar loss. That fuel was never accounted for.

more
http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Northeast/04/21/nuclear.fuel.missing.ap/

[maddezmom]

1. oh brother

"We do not think there is a threat to the public at this point. The great probability is this material is still somewhere in the pool," said Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.


you better hope they're still in the pool!! :eyes:

[struggle4progress]

2. "Trust us. Just trust us."

Nuclear industry mantra since beginning of time ...

[Just Me]

3. That would qualify as a "security problem",...

,...would be my guess.

How much of those pencil-sized rods could cause a major fiasco?

Kinda' like,...how much anthrax could freak out the whole country *LOL* (especially being directed at anyone who failed to qualify as fitting in that itsy bitsy box of fascist,...us, I mean, conservative)?

[maddezmom]

4. dirty bomb anyone?

<<Sheehan cited the heightened awareness of the need to control nuclear material that followed the September 11 terror attacks. "We don't want this falling into the wrong hands," he said. "This is something we would never take lightly.">>

Boy oh boy... bush* and his homeland security dept has made us so much safer.

[Just Me]

5. *LOL* We KNOW the neonazicons' ambitions had nothing to do with us,...

,...or our security, huh!!! Is anyone so gullible as to believe,...

*sigh* never mind

[latebloomer]

6. Lovely

just lovely!

[bicentennial_baby]

7. Ah, it's only 15 min from my house....

Jeebus H Christ...Oh, the depth of my loathing for Vt Yankee Vernon....:mad:

[hunter]

8. The Repo Man has them

Just don't open the trunk and everything will be fine!

[mouse7]

9. This is the reason Yucca Mountain will not work

Mistakes happen. Those chunks of highly radioactive fuel rods are brobably sitting in some steel drum with no shielding whatsoever. Yucca Mountain will be draining into the Colorado aquapher. That's 25 million people that will be drinking radioactive water from LA to Vegas to Phoenix.

[Throckmorton]

12. No shielding?

That would explain all those dead people.

These puppies are hot, screaming hot, kill you in a few minutes hot. For my money they went back to GE.

The fact is that the industry today is not the same as it was in the 70's.

So, in your opinion, it is better to have 125 or more spent fuel sites to keep trace of, rather than just one?

[maddezmom]

10. kick

[Beetwasher]

11. Bush's "Fully Funded" Homeland Security in Action

n/t

[TacticalPeek]

13. I guess we need more help.

Perhaps Russia can provide financial and technical assistance to help us safeguard our dangerous nuclear material. Maybe Dick Lugar and Sam Nunn could convince them that it would be in their own self-interest.

:evilgrin:

[al bupp]

14. Local Newspaper Article on This Story

It includes a bit more background...

http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~2099929,00.html

[newyawker99]

20. Hi al bupp!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[NickB79]

15. Where else could they be but still in the pond?

Seriously, these things are HIGHLY radioactive. Any attempts to steal them for use in a dirty bomb without wearing lead-lined suits would result in lethal levels of radiation within minutes to the would-be smuggler. Either the thief would have to be really dumb or really suicidal. That said, just how big is this pool if you can lose a 17" rod down there?

[Beetwasher]

16. Don't Count Out a Suicidal Thief

The 9/11 hijackers (at least some of them) knew it was a one way ticket...

[Throckmorton]

19. Well, it makes for good television, but

This thief would kill themself, and everyone around them just removing these rods. Not to mention the fleet of radiation monitors that they would set off.

This stuff is deadly, if you were to pick it up and carry it, without tons of shielding surrounding them, you would be dead in less than 1/2 an hours. You would be incapacitated in under 5 minutes. Fuel rods are very long, GE-4 BWR rods are nearly 17 feet long.

As far as lead lined suits are concerend, enough lead to effectly shield you would be impossible to wear. Ever handle a brick sized chunk of lead, it weighs over 50 pounds.

[Throckmorton]

18. About forty five feet deep,

35 feet across and maybe 80 feet long. Its also filled with other fuel assemblies, fuel racks, and other assorted high level bric-a-brack. Even though a fuel rod is 17 feet, or so, Long, it is only 1/2 inch or so in diameter, I was tangentially involved in the search for the two missing rods at Millstone One, it took over a year to move everything to look for them.

They were never found, and I believe they went back to GE in San Jose in the late 1970's.

Edit, fixed missing number

[mmonk]

17. Buried in Iraq waiting for discovery.

[Catherine Vincent]

21. CNN is really hyping this story up.

I think they may be worried. I hope they find them soon!