WARNING: Some critics of Japanese storage system see a worse-than-Chernobyl scenario ahead

Everything I read in the MSM leads me to believe this situation can't get any worse, or that containing it won't cause any further problems. That is, until I stumbled across this:

With attention focused on tons of radioactive spent fuel that may have ignited, some experts say the Japanese will be lucky if the stricken Fukushima plant creates a disaster only the size of Chernobyl in 1986.
These spent fuel rods are now being blamed for the radioactive releases over Japan. While the reactor cores are encased in bulky containment vessels, spent fuel is separated from the environment only by the water in the pools, said former nuclear engineer David Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Mass.

That those spent fuel rods were even kept at the Japanese plant is controversial. Some used rods remain hot enough to ignite their metal coatings and release dangerous plumes of radioactive gases and dust.

[MASSIVE copy-and-pasted reduced]



Click here to read article.



It's not secret that the Japanese government has been keeping a tight lid on the nuclear aspect of this disaster. However, the truth is begining to come out as even the plants chief broke down in tears while admitting the severity of the situation as one ATS member posted here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Chernobyl was 1 reactor with less potential fuel.

We are talking multiple reactors here with far more fuel.

Therefore if this cannot be contained and solved, than yes it will be like multiple Chernobyls combined.
Sorry but that's just the reality we have to deal with here.

reply to post by muzzleflash


And it's much higher capacity as well. The containment vessel was supposed to be its saving grace, but according to that article it may not be.


I'm tired of the media sugar coating this, and it seems like everyone is buying into the disinfo.

Originally posted by muzzleflash
Chernobyl was 1 reactor with less potential fuel.

We are talking multiple reactors here with far more fuel.

Therefore if this cannot be contained and solved, than yes it will be like multiple Chernobyls combined.
Sorry but that's just the reality we have to deal with here.

That summed it all up. This is potentially the worst reactor crisis in history. No wonder Michio Kaku is now calling for boron-based entombment.

I saw reports that France was airlifting 95 tons of boron to the site. It may already be there by now.

I saw that yesterday.

Let's hope they wrap this up asap.

From what I read it's very important for the spent fuels rods to remain in a vertical position.

If the pellets stay standing up, then even with the water and zirconium gone, nuclear fission will not take place, Mr. Albrecht said. Tokyo Electric said this week that there was a chance of “recriticality” in the storage pools — that is, the uranium in the fuel rods could resume the fission that previously took place inside the reactor, spewing out radioactive byproducts. Mr. Albrecht said this was very unlikely, but could happen if the stacks of pellets slumped over and became jumbled together on the floor of the storage pool.

The zirconium cladding on the fuel rods could burst into flames if exposed to air for hours when a storage pool lost its water. Zirconium, once ignited, burns extremely hot and is difficult to extinguish.

www.nytimes.com...

Imo it's the spent fuel rods that pose the greatest risk. I can't find the link right now but I have read that spent fuel rods are not always in the best condition. They can develop cracks with use and often they have been used to the point where they have begun to melt. After a year things cool down enough to allow for dry storage. 548 fuel rod assemblies were removed from reactor #4 in November and December to prepare the reactor for maintenance, these may be emitting more heat than the older assemblies in other storage pools. My question is does anyone know if the rods in the storage pools are still vertical?

When the Japaneese Gov't initially said that there was really nothing to worry about and indicated that they had it under control I told my wife, They are full of $**T, it is bad. If they say there is nothing to worry about....RUN!! EVERYTIME!!!!
Then , they recently come out and admit there is a problem.

When they admit there is a problem,.......RUN REALLY FAST!!!! NOW!!!

Here in America we are told there is nothing to worry about.

RUN!!!!!!!

Soon we will be told, "Ok, there might be a slight problem and there may be higher than average radiation levels in some areas".

RUN REALLY FAST!!!!

They are LYING!!!!
THEY ALWAYS LIE!!!
THEY WILL ALWAYS LIE!!!!

If you believe the lie then it is, and will be YOUR FAULT when you come down with cancer in 20 years.
If you live on the West coast GET THE F OUT!!!!
If you choose to stay, PLEASE don't blame anyone in 20 years when you are diagnosed with cancer.
You HAVE been told.
If you are waiting for the widescreen box in your living room to tell you the truth then you will be
waiting a long time.

At the very least, do your own research.
Get a geiger counter. HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND!
Do not rely on some internet site that monitors radiation.
Do it yourself!!
Hold it, feel it, touch it, smell it.
Read that geiger counter yourself.
Then YOU can make the best choice for you and your family based on YOUR observations.
The truth is here, NOW!

these people owe you nothing and couldn't give two squirts of P!$$ for you and your family.

I would agree that there is still a chance for a criticality event, but those odds are long.. even under the current conditions. What has me concerned is the SFP at #3. How exactly do you repair a crack or a hole under these conditions? And as I understand it, Tepco can't entomb any reactor until the SFPs are stabilized. And trying to move rods after being exposed for so long is going to be extremely difficult. The Zirconium cladding gets more brittle with every passing moment. The Chernobyl option might not be available.

I also made a thread about how right off the bat, it was the third worst nuclear disaster, here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

MSM is now tying it with 3 mile island by giving it a 5 on the scale of worst nuclear disasters, Chernobyl was a 7. So it looks to now be the 2nd worst already.

Excellent work, Virt...

The potential is at hand for massive tragedy. We hope that the efforts of all to avert that tragedy will be successful.

I would think that before they start major repairs/inspections/entombment they will need to transfer the active fuel assembles in the reactors and the assembles in the SFPs to the reprocessing facility. Major repairs/inspections/entombment will take some time and would be easier without the fuel assemblies on site.

This is what I've been saying all along but nobody has been listening. The greatest threat is from a criticality event happening in one (or more) of the used fuel pools.

It is also possible that a criticality event could happen in one of the reactor cores, if molten fuel is slowly accumulating at the bottom of the pressure vessel.

Let's hope and pray that both things are extremely unlikely and do not happen.

Another thing that I've been concerned about - I haven't seen any info on whether they are still lacing the seawater they are using in this operation with boric acid. Given how many gallons of water are involved, it seems like an insane amount of boric acid would be required. I know that France was going to airlift boron to Japan, but haven't heard whether this has happened yet. Is it possible that Japan has run out of boric acid and is just using straight-up seawater?

If so, this could be a dire mistake. Without the boric acid, the water could actually make things worse by dramatically increasing the chance of a criticality event.

Here's technical info on how water can result in a critical chain reaction:

hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu...

I know using large amounts of water is the only way to cool things down but what about all the contaminated runoff. If water from the storage pools has been leaking combined with the large amounts of sea water they're showering over the plant what kind of toxic mix is ending up in the ocean? Is this just another drop in the bucket we shouldn't worry about? You might argue that most of the water is going up as steam but frankly I'm not seeing huge steam clouds from the spraying. Imo most of the water is simply running off.

Fukushima's close proximity to the ocean makes this situation somewhat more hazardous than Chernobyl.

Originally posted by Screwed

At the very least, do your own research.
Get a geiger counter. HOLD IT IN YOUR HAND!
Do not rely on some internet site that monitors radiation.
Do it yourself!!
Hold it, feel it, touch it, smell it.
Read that geiger counter yourself.
Then YOU can make the best choice for you and your family based on YOUR observations.
The truth is here, NOW!

these people owe you nothing and couldn't give two squirts of P!$$ for you and your family.

repost from another thread; GC readings on west coast

Originally posted by loveguy
OK. I'm on the southern coast of oregon.

I have a bird feeder outside my bedroom window. Today is the first day that I don't have to refill it upon rising from my bed. There is still alot of activity around it, even Chip the monk came for some grub.

Look at me in the eye and tell me that my birds found better food elsewhere...

How terribly morbid for me to use a living thing as my own personal geiger counter...

I'm not going to hide myself in some mountain cave and pray the mountain fall upon me.
No, I'm going to be one of those names in a class-action lawsuit against the nuclear commission charging them with what will be revealed in due time-along the lines of fraud and business ethics...

ETA; Geiger Counters should be handed out like Israel furnishes it's citizens with gas masks...

Its seems like when the media is fear mongering they are wrong, also when they are sugar coating sh!t they are wrong.... I guess you truely cannot beleive noen of what you hear, and less than half of what you see.
Who do we listen too?!?!?!
I prefer to just remain prayful and follow my creators lead.... While sipping on some crown royal and cranberry, and smoking a Djarum Black

Watch this .... from IRSN - Meteo France

www.irsn.fr...

reply to post by Screwed

Those have been my exact thoughts since Day 1.

Believe the exact opposite of whatever the government and "experts" say and you'll at least have a fighting chance.

I'm afraid in this case, your name says it all.

I like Screwed's enthusiasm.

Why don't they just entomb the damn things? Why...?

These events are being orchestrated by a black hand.

I;ve been posting this for a couple days, and I believe its over 11 000 of them. When I was researching Mox Fuel yesterday and scanning pdfs I read that Japan had the biggest stockpile of mox fuel in the world, aside from France, and also that it had enough for 60 nukes.

So if a chain reaction goes is this 60 nukes worth?