Gundersen: Fuel Rods fully exposed in #4 pool emitting plutonium, serium, cesium

[flamingdem]

http://www.fairewinds.com/updates

Watch the top video for Arnie Gundersen breaking down the video that shows a dry pool on top of No. 4

[Junkdrawer]

1. Direct link to video:

http://vimeo.com/21789121

[flamingdem]

2. Japanese government in denial: Agency orders review of radiation data, seems suspicously high

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/world_news&id=8046952

Japan agency orders review of radiation dataFriday, April 01, 2011
TOKYO (KABC) -- Japan's nuclear safety agency has ordered a review of the latest radiation measurements around the Fukushima nuclear plant.


The agency said the latest unsafe levels seem suspiciously high, and there may be a problem with the computer program used to analyze the readings.

[flamingdem]

3. Gov't eyes injecting nitrogen into reactor vessels to prevent blasts

http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/82625.html

URGENT: Gov't eyes injecting nitrogen into reactor vessels to prevent blasts

TOKYO, April 1, Kyodo

The government and Tokyo Electric Power Co. are considering injecting nitrogen into containment vessels of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant's reactors to prevent hydrogen explosions, government sources said Friday.

[kirby]

4. When did #4 contain plutonium?

Only #3 used Mox.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. “In any operating nuclear reactor containing U-238, some plutonium-239 will accumulate in the…fuel”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-239#Plutonium-239_in_nuclear_power_reactors

…

In any operating nuclear reactor containing U-238, some plutonium-239 will accumulate in the nuclear fuel.<4> Unlike reactors used to produce weapons-grade plutonium, commercial nuclear power reactors typically operate at a high burnup that allows a significant amount of plutonium to build up in irradiated reactor fuel. Plutonium-239 will be present both in the reactor core during operation and in spent nuclear fuel that has been removed from the reactor at the end of the fuel assembly’s service life (typically several years). Spent nuclear fuel commonly contains about 0.8% plutonium-239.

Plutonium-239 present in reactor fuel can absorb neutrons and fission just as uranium-235 can. Since plutonium-239 is constantly being created in the reactor core during operation, the use of plutonium-239 as nuclear fuel in power plants can occur without reprocessing of spent fuel; the plutonium-239 is fissioned in the same fuel rods in which it is produced. Fissioning of plutonium-239 provides about one-third of the total energy produced in a typical commercial nuclear power plant. Reactor fuel would accumulate much more than 0.8% plutonium-239 during its service life if some plutonium-239 were not constantly being “burned off” by fissioning.

A small percentage of plutonium-239 can be deliberately added to fresh nuclear fuel. Such fuel is called MOX (mixed oxide) fuel, as it contains a mixture of uranium oxide (UO₂) and plutonium oxide (PuO₂). The addition of plutonium-239 reduces or eliminates the need to enrich the uranium in the fuel.

…

[intaglio]

10. Plutonium is produced as part of the fission process

U 238 + neutron -> U 239 -> beta minus emission + Neptunium 239 -> beta minus emission + Plutonium 239

The beta minus emission is an electron emitted when a neutron changes to a proton, Plutonium 239 has a half life of about 24 thousand years and decays to U 235.

[flamingdem]

6. Gundersen main point: Fire imminent in No. 4 fuel pool = over 170.000 deaths from cancer

So Arnie is saying it is not only increased radiation risk from radiation being released into the environment but there's also threat of a fuel pool fire, and it's already 4x higher than the becquerel count per square meter at Chernobyl. That's before the fuel pool fire, that's before any rods explode into the air.

The figures on the fuel pool fire come from a report by Brookhaven Labs about the dangers of fuel pool fires.

[buddysmellgood]

7. I was wondering what was up with the fuel in 4. We heard it was

dry a while ago.

[flamingdem]

8. Yes, they must have no way to control it and their focus is meldown in No.2

and Mox in No. 3 - however the US govt busted them from the start with analysis that the pool was dry and Tepco denied it. Maybe they are just in denial or don't care about the workers health on site.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Well. Here we have Anglo Americans bitching about losing their White Power supremacy

and the truth is, we're all going to look like warty toads in a hundred years.

[intaglio]

11. thewiseguy posted high resolution images

On this thread High resolution images of damage at Fukushima plants

Number 4 is the ruin on the left in the top picture is isolated in picture 3 and is the one on the right in the bottom shot. In that last image there is no concrete pump hosing the remains and I suspect it is a much earlier photo as there debris where the pump will later stand has not been cleared.

I suspect that in image 3 the yellow object just visible through the top blown out wall is the reactor pressure vessel lid. This means that the storage pool is beneath the head of the pump. Now look at image 1, what I see there makes me suspect that the storage pool has largely collapsed leaving the grid Gunderson sees in the video. Whether that grid still contains any fuel elements or whether they are in a large pile beneath the fuel pool is moot.

[flamingdem]

12. Gundersen should have these - I just sent him the link

These should be creating a certain amount of reaction among those who can decipher them.