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Originally posted by intrptr
Originally posted by UnmitigatedDisaster
Link to a Reuter's article discussing the Reactor 4 fuel removal.
Reactor 4 cleanup in November
Tepco has already removed two unused fuel assemblies from the pool in a test operation last year, but these rods are less dangerous than the spent bundles. Extracting spent fuel is a normal part of operations at a nuclear plant, but safely plucking them from a badly damaged reactor is unprecedented.
"To jump to the conclusion that it is going to work just fine for the rest of them is quite a leap of logic," said Gundersen.
Thanks for that link. People should read it. Arnie Gunderson is a qualified source to speak on the issues at Fukushima. More from the link...
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.
Each fuel rod assembly weighs about 300 kilograms (660 pounds) and is 4.5 meters (15 feet) long. There are 1,331 of the spent fuel assemblies and a further 202 unused assemblies are also stored in the pool, Nagai said.
They have removed two unused fuel rod assemblies so far? Whoopee, two years on and billions of dollars and they are creeping along. Stay tuned on the projections for how much this is going to cost and how long it will take.
The safety issues are enormous like Gunderson says. Pulling damaged, volatile "spent" fuel rods from the cracked, leaking, vulnerable to more tremblers pool, is about the scariest scenario I can imagine. Each of these assemblies (a bundle of fuel rods similar in a appearance to a bundle of pencils) weighing over 600 pounds, made of the most dangerous stuff on the planet, that can catch fire and "fission" in the open air if they drop it or bump it against a wall.
Only 1329 more bundles to go. In that pool, in that reactor building.
Also of note is they removed the undamaged, unused fuel rods first. They can still use them in another reactor. So the choice to act upon the danger was to rescue the money first.
Originally posted by EllaMarina
I assume turning the reactor off isn't an option. I keep thinking of a machine zooming around with its power button stuck.
Originally posted by EllaMarina
reply to post by JustMike
Thanks for the detailed and interesting explanation.
So the situation is indefinite for the foreseeable future. Whatever is being rinsed out into the sea might perhaps take decades before it's depleted.
It is good to see several posters whom had long been absent as well as others who have since joined the ranks of the interested.
I look forward to following this thread and helping to add to the quality of ATS.
Originally posted by amazing
I would hope some prominent athletes and even countries boycott these games to bring attention to this mess.
Originally posted by autopat51
yes..this disaster that will not end
should be talked about every day.
Originally posted by DancedWithWolves
Tokyo has been chosen to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
Billions will be spent on parties and games.
While Fukushima festers and burns a permanent scar on our earth.
The only leaks likely to stop are information and truth about how bad this disaster is becoming.