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After disaster, the deadliest part of Japan's nuclear clean-up beginning this November!

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posted on Aug, 14 2013 @ 09:48 PM
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Insight: After disaster, the deadliest part of Japan's nuclear clean-up

(Reuters) - The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is preparing to remove 400 tons of highly irradiated spent fuel from a damaged reactor building, a dangerous operation that has never been attempted before on this scale.

By Aaron Sheldrick and Antoni Slodkowski
TOKYO | Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:16am BST


Containing radiation equivalent to 14,000 times the amount released in the atomic bomb attack on Hiroshima 68 years ago, more than 1,300 used fuel rod assemblies packed tightly together need to be removed from a building that is vulnerable to collapse, should another large earthquake hit the area.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco) is already in a losing battle to stop radioactive water overflowing from another part of the facility, and experts question whether it will be able to pull off the removal of all the assemblies successfully.

"They are going to have difficulty in removing a significant number of the rods," said Arnie Gundersen, a veteran U.S. nuclear engineer and director of Fairewinds Energy Education, who used to build fuel assemblies.

The operation, beginning this November at the plant's Reactor No. 4, is fraught with danger, including the possibility of a large release of radiation if a fuel assembly breaks, gets stuck or gets too close to an adjacent bundle, said Gundersen and other nuclear experts.

“There is a risk of an inadvertent criticality if the bundles are distorted and get too close to each other,” Gundersen said. He was referring to an atomic chain reaction [...]

“The problem with a fuel pool criticality is that you can’t stop it. There are no control rods to control it,” Gundersen said. [...]

“Previously it was a computer-controlled process [...] It has to be done manually so there is a high risk that they will drop and break one of the fuel rods,” [Toshio Kimura, a former Tepco technician, who worked at Fukushima Daiichi for 11 years] said. [...]

The process will begin in November and Tepco expects to take about a year removing the assemblies, spokesman Yoshikazu Nagai told Reuters by e-mail. It's just one installment in the decommissioning process for the plant forecast to take about 40 years and cost $11 billion.


uk.reuters.com...

enenews.com... u-cant-stop-it-no-control-rods-to-control-it-consulta

edit on 14-8-2013 by MariaLida because: (no reason given)



posted on Aug, 14 2013 @ 10:14 PM
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What are they going to do with it once removed, where are they going to dump it and how are they going to seal the contamination risk.



posted on Aug, 15 2013 @ 12:22 AM
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reply to post by borntowatch
 


Good question, perhaps they will use something like this and probably bury it somewhere.



posted on Aug, 15 2013 @ 12:35 AM
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If they are already sufficiently cooled, they will be put into dry storage casks, there will be an enchanted forest "name we use for our dry cask storage facility". Hundreds of these casks will be used.

If they still need cooling, they will be put into another fuel pool for a few years before dry cask storage.

I don't think they can pull it off manually, I really don't. The risk is beyond astronomical. And these fools don't seem to be able to do anything right. A 3rd party should be doing this. This task is more important then the cooling of the reactors.

I'm not rooting for failure, this would be a huge worldwide epidemic, I am really curious to see how they plan to pull it off.



posted on Aug, 17 2013 @ 03:13 AM
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reply to post by MariaLida
 


Any word of exactly when in November? Keep us updated;



posted on Aug, 17 2013 @ 07:47 AM
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Isn't the process going to take 10 years? It's quite possible that another large earthquake will happen in that time,it's amazing that the fate of the world is in the hands of a bankrupt electricity company,this should be a military operation.

I try to forget about it and get on with my life but it can't be denied that the chance of disaster here is very high.



posted on Aug, 17 2013 @ 08:56 AM
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OK...let's hope everything goes well and nothing goes terribly wrong...but, what are the implications, exactly, for the world if something did go wrong?

What are the possible, even likely scenarios...anyone care to speculate?



posted on Aug, 17 2013 @ 09:10 AM
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Originally posted by MysterX
OK...let's hope everything goes well and nothing goes terribly wrong...but, what are the implications, exactly, for the world if something did go wrong?

What are the possible, even likely scenarios...anyone care to speculate?


have you ever seen the lava flow on the big island of Hawaii as it goes into the sea, and the steam rising up from the contact of the lava with the water? now, imagine that a uncontrolled nuclear core at thousands of degrees hits all that water, the resulting explosion and the massive steam clouds rising up...but...this time, those clouds of steam are filled with death-causing nuclear isotopes that get into our atmosphere and into the jet stream...remember that these isotopes have also been discharging into the sea 24/7 for the last 2 years...makes me want to buy a Geiger counter just to test the fish at the grocery store.



posted on Aug, 17 2013 @ 09:17 AM
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reply to post by jimmyx
 


Cheers jimmyx, not a great picture is it.

Compared to other meltdowns in windscale / sellafield and chernobyl, what is the estimated amount of radiocative fallout at Fukushima?

I know radiactive contamination from windscale and chernobyl was bad, but how bad would Japans be in comparison do you think?

I suppose i'm really asking would the Fukushima meltdown and the operation to remove the rods, cause a threat to life on Earth or is that being overly dramatic / pessimistic?



posted on Aug, 17 2013 @ 12:55 PM
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reply to post by MysterX
 




I suppose i'm really asking would the Fukushima meltdown and the operation to remove the rods, cause a threat to life on Earth or is that being overly dramatic / pessimistic?


Overly dramatic by a million times. You can't get a nuclear explosion, and you cant sustain a reaction unless the geometry of the fuel rods is very precise even with 'new' fuel. A criticality is highly unlikely with spent fuel, all you need to do is make sure they don't get really close, and a criticality would only hurt those who were very close to it. The whole show is just that, a big show. Make it look and sound like it is extremely dangerous so they can milk the taxpayer for billions of dollars to give to the Yakuza. Anyone who believes this could do any damage whatsoever to life on Earth is a sucker, pure and simple, with no idea of nuclear science whatsoever.




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