This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Crane Fell on Plutonium-Containing Spent Fuel Rods, Crushing Them
MSNBC reports that plutonium has been found in soil around the Fukushima plant:
The
Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the plant, said it found
three radioactive isotopes of plutonium — plutonium 238, 239 and 240 —
in five locations outside the plant in soil tests on March 21-22.
NHK
tv notes that a giant crane fell over and probably crushed spent fuel
rods at in Fukushima reactor number 3, which contain a plutonium-uranium mix:
(starting around 1:40 into video).
CNN points out:
Plutonium can be a serious health hazard if inhaled or ingested, but external exposure poses little health risk, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
As the Argonne National Laboratory notes:
Essentially
all the plutonium on earth has been created within the past six decades
by human activities involving fissionable materials.***
Atmospheric
testing of nuclear weapons, which ceased worldwide by 1980, generated
most environmental plutonium. About 10,000 kg were released to the
atmosphere during these tests.Average plutonium levels in surface soil from fallout range from about 0.01 to 0.1 picocurie per gram (pCi/g).
Accidents and other releases from weapons production facilities have caused greater localized contamination.
So
like radioactive cesium and iodide - which I discussed yesterday -
plutonium doesn't exist in nature in any significant quantity, and so
"background radiation" is a meaningless concept.
Plutonium stays
radioactive for a long time. Pu-238 has an 88-year half-life, Pu-239 has
a 24,000-year half-life, and Pu-240 has a 6,500-year half life.
As I noted
yesterday, "internal emitters" (radioactive substances which get
inside our bodies) are more dangerous than "external emitters".
Plutonium is not that dangerous as an external emitter, but deadly as an
internal emitter.
As Argone National Labs notes:
When
plutonium is inhaled, a significant fraction can move from the lungs
through the blood to other organs, depending on the solubility of the
compound. Little plutonium (about 0.05%) is absorbed from the
gastrointestinal tract after ingestion, and little is absorbed through
the skin following dermal contact. After leaving the intestine or lung,
about 10% clears the body. The rest of what enters the bloodstream
deposits about equally in the liver and skeleton where it remains for
long periods of time, with biological retention halflives of about 20
and 50 years, respectively, per simplified models that do not reflect
intermediate redistribution. The amount deposited in the liver and
skeleton depends on the age of the individual, with fractional uptake in
the liver increasing with age. Plutonium in the skeleton deposits on
the cortical and trabecular surfaces of bones and slowly redistributes
throughout the volume of mineral bone with time.Plutonium
generally poses a health hazard only if it is taken into the body
because all isotopes except plutonium-241 decay by emitting an alpha
particle, and the beta particle emitted by plutonium-241 is of low
energy. Minimal gamma radiation is associated with these radioactive
decays. However, there is an external gamma radiation hazard associated
with plutonium-244 from it short-lived decay product neptunium-240m.
Inhaling airborne plutonium is the primary concern for all isotopes, and
cancer resulting from the ionizing radiation is the health effect of
concern. The ingestion hazard associated with common forms of plutonium
is much lower than the inhalation hazard because absorption into the
body after ingestion is quite low. Laboratory studies with experimental
animals have shown that exposure to high levels of plutonium can cause
decreased life spans, diseases of the respiratory tract, and cancer. The
target tissues in those animals were the lungs and associated lymph
nodes, liver, and bones.
NPR claims:
Although
plutonium is a long-lived emitter of radiation, it is also quite
heavy, so it is not likely to move very far downwind from its source.
However, plutonium from Chernobyl has been discovered in Sweden and Poland.
So
plutonium might be heavier than other radioactive materials, but it is
not so heavy that it can't travel hundreds of miles in the right
circumstances.
- advertisements -
More likely, plutonium comes from breached reactor:
http://saposjoint.net/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=66&t=2657&start=220#p31460
Can Murphy please report in the directors office?!
thank you...
Oh thats just GREAT!!!
Plutonium, the metal that keeps on giving (radiation)
If they promised me a half life of 100 000 years if I went and lived in that reactor...i wouldn't say no...I could reread a lot of toxic novels in there...like Lady Chatterly, Jours Tranquils à Clichy, Tropic of Cancer, Monica Lewinsky's memoirs, "I married GBW", by Laura, "How to die of Boredom with Sarkozy", by Carla Bruni..
manmade plutonium?
wtf ftw.
there we go messing with the 2nd dimension.... maybe humanity will destroy itself then we can mess with the 4th.
our leaders are failing us. disgrace.
every leak apparently brings with more good news......
So basicall Plutonium in a way is similar to Ebola in that it is too heavy to disperse easily as Ebola is too effective at killing that it cannot spread easily.
Yea, if you ignore the fact that human toxicity from plutonium is undefined, plutonium cannot reproduce, and the fact that there are no documented human cases of death by plutonium exposure.
Apart from that, sure same as ebola, or not.
Plutonium is just like Ebola, if Ebola had a virtually unlimited life, killed slowly over years, and could only be made by mankind. All we need are nanobots made of the stuff, which I'm sure the Dept. of Defense is working on as we speak.
I'm surprised we ever learned to control fire without destroying all life, I guess the oceans are handy firebreaks. Too bad oceans don't stop fallout. On the upside you can't buy watches with radium dials anymore, so we do have a learning curve, its just very very slow.
Lahey said: "It won't come out as one big glob; it'll come out like lava, and that is good because it's easier to cool."
Unlike lava, it generates its own heat.
NPR needs to be defunded, it stopped reporting news along time ago. It's just another corp. shill when they started taking in ads for companies like GE.
You forgot to insert the word "liberal" into your statement,..
Oh my yes, lets try to kill all news sources. Extraspecially those that have been spewing fact until they were forced to take advertising and were denied funding. Choose quick! Money or facts?
Theyre not 'news sources' at all theyre govt blowhorns.
+1
And check this:
"The indications we have, from the reactor to radiation readings and the materials they are seeing, suggest that the core has melted through the bottom of the pressure vessel in unit two, and at least some of it is down on the floor of the drywell," Lahey said. "I hope I am wrong, but that is certainly what the evidence is pointing towards."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/29/japan-lost-race-save-nuclear-reactor
I agree but only part of the core however. Most likely only the enriched uranium seeded fuel rods (used to start the reactor... yup... been reading again) when the zircaloy tubes decomposed into zirconium oxides and hydrides. That would cause the nastiest ceramic oxide pellets to drop to the bottom of the reactor vessel where the boron impregnated moderating rods aren't since they are engaged in the core above. Reactions therefore start again and melt a hole in the 20cm thick steel vessel.
Small potatoes right now. Wait until the 150 tons of regular fuel rods (as pellets once the zircaloy is compromised) follow.
Let's hope they don't
NEEM
wheatgrass is good too...so is kelp (as long as it's not from japan)
neem soap is incredible. the toothpaste was recalled last year/toxic elements found.
and the nights who say 'neem'
Maybe its time for people to stock up on a supplement called NEEM!
Ive got a half gallon on neem oil around here somewhere. Mix a little in water and spray it on plants no bugs will touch it.
I see a new Kung Fu move here, the Falling Crane. Look for it in Karate Kid VII. . .
Squeeky Fromm, Girl Reporter
"Although plutonium is a long-lived emitter of radiation, it is also quite heavy, so it is not likely to move very far downwind from its source."
Wait until monsoon season hits and takes this shit inland.
Actually Japan's monsoon season is just alot of rain and not much wind. But over the summer typhoon season hits. And you all know what those do ;-(
Hey william, have you thought of shopping the Tepco logo into a mutant mickey rat? The geometry is perfect, the 3 spheres on top become his ears ,and the two open circles within the larger circle below the 3 spheres, are a single cyclops eye and an howling mouth, respectively.
Disney said the atom is our friend and I agree. A friend who eats all our food, drinks all our booze, sleeps with our significant others, burns down our house and steals our car and then punches us in the face. With friends like these.....
Just a thought.
You mean all that stuff headed out over the Pacific could end up in Nagano?
As Freddie Plutonium once sang in 'Fukushima Rhapsody'....
"Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me... to me..."
To the Japanese however it's a serious serious matter. Time to commence with "Operation PowerFlush"... into the sea I say!
The most radioactive substance on Earth is GW's credibility after that gulf of mexico debacle. George, is everyone on the gulf dead yet?
Prince Edward Sound is very far from anything approaching recovery, so these distasters play out over many years. The problems in the GOM will become much more evident in animals when they fail to reproduce this spring. Numbers of many, if not most species will be down, but this will mainly be reported in scientific journals and ignored by the mass media, and therefore, the masses. Many people along the coast are reported to be suffering from toxic exposure to either corexit or the oil, or both, and yet there are people who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge this evidence of harm.
Does everybody need to die at once for you to see it?
Hey ITG... if we can enough readers to chip in say $10 bucks a pop... why don't you become our man on the ground in Fukushima and tell us how 'swimmingly' things are going?
That way we will know when everyone is dead.
Not everyone, but can I offer you a 'blackened' shrimp jambalaya?
This could be good news.
If the plutonium was released because of the crane falling in the pool, it would mean that the plutonium may not have come from meltdown. That would mean that the plutonium particles would be larger in size and easier to clean up, as long as they did not melt or burn.
What are you selling?
Information wants to be free.
Nope.... no good news yet.
Reactor conditions continue to deteriorate and may soon necessitate a complete evacuation of the site... oh... and they are actually calling the French for help.
The French.
Think about that.
Why don't you go there, Mr. wise guy ?
they are actually calling the French for help.
Sure its a bit odd, but EDF definitely know their business. Remember that EDF gets 90% of its electrical capacity from nuclear. There is the distinct possibility that EDF has rehearsed this very same type of incident. They have also had their fair share of accidents (albeit nowhere near the type or scale of the Fukushima accident). The french also run an enviable closed cycle process giving them very high intelligence on matters in dealing with the fuel.
Personally, I'd have Westinghouse on the sling here, with consultants from the Chernobyl team. Say all the bad things you want about Russians, but they know how to get shit done when they need to. The TEPCO bosses should have responded to this event much more rapidly and comprehensively than they did, but what's done is done and now is the time to fix this thing.
But that's just me being an armchair scientist.
Yup knew that. And Germans went with 'clean' coal. Both are fine when public health/safety and not cost cutting measures are the focus.
Given the nature of the existing situation however... partial meldowns in progress... I would be consulting with a team of demolition experts combined with a team of nuclear physicists.
The options are extremely limited right now and time is working against them if they cannot restore circulation to the reactor vessels.
It's a bit like talking to a Peugot engineer after a Chevy crash on how best to extract the dead occupant while the car is burning!
Bring in the Russians... I wholeheartedly agree! They are not afraid of making difficult choices which is what we are left with here.
If it weren't for the spent fuel storage issues I would be looking to induce a 'Chernobyl solution' by using shaped conventional high explosive charges to blow the reactor vessels and thus stop any further fission reactions. Sure it would be a localized nightmare. But it would be over. Just wait far a rainy day with a breeze blowing out to sea.
I know... I know... I can hear it already... "thank goodness ZerO is not calling the shots here".
But if they wait for the fuel to exhaust itself this could go on for years. Or continue to get much worse.
Let's take the heat off. PowerFlush time.
the French like to think they can make good Roquefort cheese inside that reactor!
So the blue stuff in Roquefort is actually Plutonium?
Radon gas.
Where is the science patrol and Ultraman when you need them? Hell, I'd even take Pigmon at this point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_TTZ_yH4_4
Ultraman : almost as wooden acting as President Obama and PM David Cameron
where are the egyptians to bury this cocksucker under a damn pyramid
It doesn't get any better than that. First time I ever saw it in color.
Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 has no MOX fuel in the spent fuel pool. All 32 MOX fuel assemblies are in the reactor core. MOX fuel was loaded for the first time in Fall 2010. There is plutonium in every spent fuel assembly as plutonium is generated as a result of the fission process. So, it is correct that if the reactor building and/or fuel handling crane dropped into the Unit 3 spent fuel pool, it hit fuel assemblies containing plutonium. If it hit MOX fuel assemblies, then the reactor vessel head blew off in the explosion (highly unlikely, but possible depending on the maximum pressure reached in the vessel during the accident).
It's gotta suck to be a nuke engineer right about now.