Japan nuclear crisis deepens as radiation keeps crews at bay

[jpak]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/japan-nuclear-crisis-deepens-radiation

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The emergency workers focused their efforts on the storage pool at reactor 3, the only unit at the site that runs on mixed oxide fuel, which contains reclaimed plutonium. The strategy appeared to conflict with comments made by US nuclear officials and Sir John Beddington, the UK government's chief science adviser, who are most concerned about the storage pool at reactor 4, which they say is now completely empty.

"The water is pretty much gone," Beddington said, adding that storage pools at reactors 5 and 6 were leaking. "We are extremely worried about that. The reason we are worried is that there is a substantial volume of material there and this, once it's open to the air and starting to heat up, can start to emit significant amounts of radiation."

The storage pools are supposed to be kept below 25C to keep the spent fuel rods from heating up, but temperature readings at the ponds in reactor buildings 4, 5 and 6 show temperatures have been rising this week, to around 60C in pools 5 and 6 and at least 84C at reactor 4.

<anip>

The concern with reactor 3 appears to stem from an explosion on Monday that is thought to have damaged the primary containment facility around the reactor's core. If the storage pool at the reactor runs dry, radiation levels could soar so high that engineers cannot approach the reactor to try and bring it under control. David Lochbaum, a nuclear physicist for the Union of Concerned Scientists and a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission safety instructor, said the level of radiation beside the exposed rods would deliver a fatal dose in 16 seconds.

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[thereismore]

1. It will come down to dropping boric acid and smothering the reactors, like

they did at Chernobyl.