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The Amount of Radioactive Fuel at Fukushima DWARFS Chernobyl
Science Insider noted yesterday:
The Daiichi complex in Fukushima, Japan ... had a total of 1760
metric tons of fresh and used nuclear fuel on site last year,
according to a presentation by its owners, the Tokyo Electric
Power Company (Tepco). The most damaged Daiichi reactor, number 3,
contains about 90 tons of fuel,
and the storage pool above reactor 4, which the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) Gregory Jaczko reported yesterday had
lost its cooling water, contains 135
tons of spent fuel. The amount of fuel lost in the core melt
at Three Mile Island in 1979 was about 30 tons; the Chernobyl reactors
had about 180 tons when the accident occurred in 1986.
And see this.
That means that Fukushima has nearly 10 times more nuclear fuel than Chernobyl.
It also means that a single spent fuel pool - at reactor 4, which has lost all of its water and thus faces a release of its radioactive material - has 75% as much nuclear fuel as at all of Chernobyl.
However, the real numbers are even worse.
Specifically, Tepco very recently transferred many more radioactive spent fuel rods into the storage pools. According to Associated Press, there were - at the time of the earthquake and tsunami - 3,400 tons of fuel in seven spent fuel pools plus 877 tons of active fuel in the cores of the reactors.
That totals 4,277 tons of nuclear fuel at Fukushima.
Which means that there is almost 24 times more nuclear fuel at Fukushima than Chernobyl.
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No GW, im not a government disinformation agent. I used to post on ZH under great depression trader, now changed it to subprime JD, after my blog subprimejd.blogspot.com
To the point, I like your blog as you post good info. But you were really off on the oil spill scenario. A bit of emotional restraint would have served you well. So now that we have another disaster, I hope you don't go overboard again.
Peace
I totally agree. You can also let people know if you agree with what you are reporting. And, yes, Oil Volcano came up more than once GW. We saw it. It would be helpful if you clarify to us whether you agree or not (if you feel like it).
I for one discounted you for awhile after that. Yes, junk me, I know. I am just telling you how I felt at the time.
and yes, there is a big problem in the Gulf, but no Volcano that blasted the gulf out of existence.
are you at all implying everything is fine in the gulf of mexico?
if you are, i will shift from my usual sarcasm mode to lambast your ignorant stance
so lemme know,'k?
on Sat, 03/19/2011 - 13:39
#1075693
"Fuku is conveniently located in the NE section of Japan allowing for the majority of the radioactive particles to drift towards the pacific."
that is absoluutely, positively, the dumbest thing i have ever heard anyone say on zh.
you have just taken the two million at risk people who live in northern japan, and their ability to feed themselves and others, and told them to go eat shit off of paper plates.
because your statement is both reprehensible and beneath contempt, on behalf of the zh community that still has a brain and a heart, i do here by take the liberty of officially proclaiming you DTDS....and.....DAAFRABOR........
Or would you prefer for the reactor to go apeshit southwest of tokyo so the radiation can flow right through it??
Saying that the Japanese have a much better handle on this than did the Soviets is like saying Lindsay Lohan has a better grip on sobriety than Charlie Sheen.
I also take exception with your implication that this is somehow not an epic clusterfuck of an apocalytpic nightmare just because planet Earth, herself, will probably still be inhabitable on the majority of her surface.
I'll let others explain to you why the implications for Japan's society, infrastructure, population, agriculture and the global economy as well are rather disturbing at the moment.
"an epic clusterfuck of an apocalytpic nightmare" by Matte Black
I will remember this quote and your user name. In 2 months from now when the Fuku story is no longer a story, the next time I see you post on ZH I will remind you of the alarmist and paranoid statement that you made. If you are new to this site and its ideas it is understandable that the information can get overwhelming at first. I've been a doomer for 5 years now so I get used to these "shocking" events. Absent a new world war or a modern version of the bubonic plague, there will be no epic clusterfuck of an apocalytpic nightmare.
Challenge accepted.
But I insist you retain my quote in it's entirety:
I also take exception with your implication that this is somehow not an epic clusterfuck of an apocalytpic nightmare just because planet Earth, herself, will probably still be inhabitable on the majority of her surface.
I am new here, but this ain't my first rodeo, Mr. JD. Your pick of that bit out of its original context seems to imply that is what you might believe.
Fair enough sir. Good to have new members in the club :0
And thank you, sir. Good to be here. ;)
Dudes, get a room.
Mr. JD and I are gentlemen, and gentlemen do not simply get a room.
Gentlemen meet on the green at dawn, and afterward they get a hospital room.
This is fight club. You guys know what to do.
Hey, i'm back and sober.
Do you know who junked my story of the Balu people?
In another 40000 years the nippon tribe will get sick when they camp near the wasteland they used to call Fukushima,
and the only survivors in the usa will be the hillbilly's who stashed their cans and guns while then their families thought they were nuts....
i know it was a hillbilly that junked my balu story and i'm shitty.
This morning i woke up with the runs....question i am asking should i start taking my nuke pills Now or is it too Late.... am i doomed?
If you ate a "nuclear banana" you are finished.
green beer? works every time.
Occam's Razor might dictate that you consider what you've eaten in the past couple of days. If your hair isn't falling out and the 'runs' weren't red, you're probably just a hypochondriac who should spend less time eating Chipotle.
I think you missed your calling. Ever think about stand-up?
LOL. Very funny, snowball.
Men in power seem to develop a god-like complex and will always place profit above all else even when mishaps like Fukushima have the potential to destroy millions of innocent lives as well as hundreds of square miles of land and sea. When will we ever learn that if we wish to destroy ourselves and the planet then at least make it by referrendum-let all the people rather than our corrupt leaders (political and business) vote on all major issues: budgets, size of govt, Fed's role, etc.
Humans don't learn. Just ask Johnny. This might be nature's way of saying "Goodbye Humanity, Hello Cockroaches". I think Keith Richards might survive along with the roaches.
Humans don't learn. Just ask Johnny.
If I believed Johnny knew anything about the renaissance, or the industrial revolution, or the green revolution, or the digital revolution I would.
But, I suspect the Johnny you're talking about is playing WoW, and trying to keep his britches from falling the rest of the way down.
Radiation levels beyond 12 miles of Japanese nuke plant are near normal
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/03/18/134658088/radiation-data-near-nuclear-plant-offers-little-cause-for-concern?ft=1&f=1001
I'm not a meteorologist, nor do I play one on television, but have you ever watched the smoke plume from a burning cigarette as it trails the air currents first one direction then the other?
I think it's a rather hit and miss game trying to measure radiation levels at any given location at the moment.
Nevertheless, I hope that report is correct.
Was watching the explosions again. There has to be rods and pellets thrown at least a mile across the countryside and around the complex.
Man has known for millenia that when shit blows up, everything flies all over the place.
Yet, I fully expect to hear that in this case all the toxic material fell straight down and was pinned there, so don't worry we're safe.
And this, while nuclear scientists weep and pray in the public square.
This is so far beyond fucked up it boggles the mind. All I see is a whole lot of obfuscation and continuing lies from GovCo.
They will continue to deny the problem right up until there are folks with flesh burned off their bodies, and then, they will say it is just a bad sunburn.
Nothing to see here proletariat......move along.
Indeed, nothing to see here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSjK2Oqrgic
deleted, as pushed upstairs.
24 X bitchizzs
Would there be any way of loading the rods onto a ship and dumping them into the deepest part of the ocean? If the area was not siesmicly active would that not be about the safest place on earth for them?
I have always preferred the moon or perhaps Mars to store that stuff. I take the used cat litter out of the house, don't keep it in the kitchen cupboards or under my bed or even in the garage...
Yes, lets make it ok for any country with toxic shit can dump it in the middle of the ocean as long as they can load the rods on to a ship.
They would get a team of volunteers who would perhaps be made into superheroes by all the radiation and be in manga comics.
The big danger as you say would be to dump all the radioactive rods in an area of seismic activity where a rod could blow open the earths crust and godzilla come out to lay waste to tokyo. a bummer after the all the trouble you went to to dump the shit near hawaii
Ahem, u r correct and sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
Was rather tiddly last night and can barely remember writing the post...
but to your point about dumping nuclear waste - when i was growing up i heard stories of in the 1970's where they just dumped crap from the early reactors in the north sea...
i think there is enough there already...
"lets make it ok for any country with toxic shit can dump it in the middle of the ocean as long as they can load the rods on to a ship."
And you think this isn't the case already?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/595021.stm
"A report commissioned by the Irish Government has concluded there is no health risk from radioactive material dumped in the Irish Sea over a period of 30 years."
"eight million litres of nuclear waste"
"200 kg of plutonium"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Sea#Radioactive_pollution
---
http://www1.american.edu/ted/arctic.htm
Dumping of highly radioactive wastes at sea has been bannedworldwide for more than three decades, still it has been revealed
that Russia (the former Soviet Union) has been dumping highly
radioactive materials in the Arctic Sea (more precisely the Barents
Kara Seas) since the late 1950s.
According to an official "White Paper" report compiled and released by
the Russian government in March 1993, the Soviet Union dumped six nuclear submarine reactors and ten nuclear reactors into the Kara Sea between 1965-1988.
Although it was banned, they've done this. Latest destination: Africa - especially in Somalia - where do you think all these mutant pirates come?
For many years the US coast guard (and no doubt the navy also) had a clandestine policy of dumping discarded batteries into the ocean, while civilians were being fined $500 or $1000 for littering. But you didn't learn about it from the print or broadcast media.
Is the US military subject to any environmental standards? I thought they were exempt.
Wow that's sarcastic. I have long wondered why it is not a viable option to put spent fuel into the deep ocean though. It seems to me to be pretty safe to put it into five miles of water. It seems less likely to harm anyone or any thing than putting it into a moutain. I should think poisin would be likelier to harm living things after a siesmic event there where maybe it would affect groundwater. the dispersal of radioactive material in the deep ocean would probably render the concentrations harmless to any living things. I wondered this before fukishima so leave the logistical problems there out of it. Would it not be better to have had the spent fuel at the bottom at the bottom of the ocean when the tsunami hit?
Ahem, u r correct and sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
Was rather tiddly last night and can barely remember writing the post...
but to your point about dumping nuclear waste - when i was growing up i heard stories of in the 1970's where they just dumped crap from the early reactors in the north sea...
i think there is enough there already...
I read an article in Scientific American a few years ago that suggested that spent fuel rods could be encased in some kind of large glass cylinders (chemically non-reactive to seawater and soil) and then placed into deep holes dug way out there in the ocean. Being entombed in such glass cylinders and buried under the ocean floor seemed like a good idea.
I am sorry that I cannot easily produce a link to the article, but anyone interested could probably find it.
Put 1 politician or federal official into each cylinder so as to greatly reduce non-radiative surface contamination, and I'll go for it.
You might run out of rods before you run out of them politicians
Most of the spent fuel is in the "common pool" that is in a separate building that hasn't been touched by the Tsunami and is too far to be touched by the explosion of the reactors (past or future). As it is for spent fuel that has already sojourned for a long time in the reactor pools before being transferred, the thermal generation is small. This is why TEPCO, NISA and indeed every other nuclear regulator in the world is not too worried about it. The situation on this central pool will probably be stabilized as soon as they recover power.
The fact that pool number 4 lost all its water is disputed. Jaczko claims it is the case, the IRSN (scientific arm of the French NRC) thinks uncovering of fuel rod will happen on the 21st at the soonest. ( http://www.irsn.fr/FR/Actualites_presse/Actualites/Documents/IRSN_Seisme... if you read french). They have also an interesting theory on the reactor 3 pool : they think that the top of the containment has been blown by the explosion, which reduces the maximum height of water that can be put into the pool, thus explaining the high level of radiation on the right side of the building. If this is the case, the Japanese have a real s*** sandwich on their hands, as it won't be easy to bring the radiation levels lower.
"This is why TEPCO, NISA and indeed every other nuclear regulator in the world is not too worried about it."
How do you know this? You don't. They should be shitting bricks over this.
Wouldn't want another quake and tsunami and put that stuff into the ocean off the coast there!
Saaay, isn't all this a highly regulated activity?
I eagerly await the regulators coming forward saying in one clear and unified voice..."I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part - and we're just the guys do to it." ;-)
I can't resist...toga, Toga, TOGA
LOL...yes it was.