The first fuel units to be removed are among some 204 that had yet to be used. TEPCO says that these units pose little danger because unused fuel emits low levels of radiation. Operations to remove the 1331 more dangerous used fuel units will not be attempted until a much larger crane has been installed. This will be used to manoeuvre the 100-tonne metal casks that will be required to house the spent fuel units to ensure they are not exposed to the air, says Koide.

So, the most dangerous materials will still remain.

I am dizzy from all this running in circles.

entomb.........this........site!

Anything short of that is placing the entire planet in danger because this situation is way out beyond the point where the signs say 'out of control'. Enough with the attitude of making lemonade out of lemons and doing everything all nice and pretty for the corporate sheets. entomb this place forever in a number of concrete tombs within a few larger ones with something even bigger beyond that. This is pandora's box and they still have no idea what the cores look like.

Where do they plan to put them?

They probably fly tipped them. After all radiation is good for you.

My understanding is that there are these million dollar lead containers they use with fuel rods for long-term storage or transport. I think that it is there intention to put all these fuel rods in those.

I head heard they were so expensive that other options were being foisted on the deciders... but in the end, it seems unlikely that there are any other realistic options....

I remember the day after the news of the real crisis at the plant (as if the earthquake and tsunami weren't enough) I was among the few saying the the same thing as Wrabbit posted above... encase the whole site - but I guess that would have been too much of a complete surrender for TEPCO's executives and board to accept (not that they were listening to the peanut gallery anyway.)

It is kind of curious that the high price of nuclear-generated electric energy was to offset the exorbitant insurance costs for plants like this.... but obviously that was just another excuse to gouge the consumers for as much as possible. No insurance can cover this kind of crisis... or at least, no insurance seems to.

Yes, but I don't see them being airlifted out in tanks of water. And they're very hot. They have to be moved in cold water or the whole planet is being nuked by full rods with every one moved, and that is something I researched and was explained in a very good video, and that we've never done this before, its very costly and takes extraordinary equipment, so one country and one company alone couldn't do it.

So to me, what Tepco is doing is trying to kill the world.

And that brings up another question.

Where is the world, a world wide think tank and then decisions counsel should have already gotten world wide equipment and world wide solutions to Fukushima within a week of it occurring.

Arent these the same fuel rods that nobody could go near and they killed robots in seconds? Wtf?
I thi
By the way, how many nuclear reactors have melted down in the us? How many nuclear engineers were killed by standing on top of a reactor and pulling so hard on control rods that they pulled them completely out? How many nuclear bombs have detonated in the usa?

Seriously, the us government secretly melted down like 80 reactors in the desert. They were all safely dismantled and this is easily verified. Sure, they didnt happen in the tokyo metro area. This isnt even close to being a worldwide extinction event

Wow,

This is so disturbing.

The part about the Japanese Parliament making it illegal to say anything bad is obscene.

It's unbelievable how quiet the news is about all this.

Just insane

Fukushima...

If one wished to write a instruction manual on everything not to do when operating a nuclear power plant, one would be hard pressed to find a more complete list. The lack of safety backups in the design, the proximity of radioactive water to sea water, the location on a subduction zone, the lack of hindsight in estimating probable quake strengths, the location of the diesel generators and tanks susceptible to tsunami damage/contamination, the delays bringing in alternate power sources, the lack of honesty when evaluating damage, the corporate coverup of important information, the pure lack of common sense in attempting cooling operations...

After this comedy of errors, there is really little anyone can do. Northern Japan is a zombie, dead but not yet fallen down. We have no technology that can reverse, or even slow at this point, the damage.

I wish them luck in removing the rods. Chances are that everyone who works on that project will die either from acute radiation poisoning or from cancerous infestation shortly afterwards. Sadly, they will probably be joined soon enough by the population of that area. I have no concern about a media cover-up... there is nothing left to cover up, really. The damage has been done, all that is left is to watch the aftermath. This was over less than a week after the tsunami.

TheRedneck

Originally posted by TheMindWar
They probably fly tipped them. After all radiation is good for you.

It's a condiment, essentially.


Seriously though, this is maddening that the press aren't reporting on this situation more.

Of course they "salvage" the unused fuelrods first since they still have a large value now that Japan has started using nuclear power again. Just saying...