Published: May 7th, 2012 at 5:58 pm ET
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Magnitude 4.8 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
USGS
Magnitude 4.8
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 at 03:59:45 AM at epicenter
Location 36.960°N, 141.234°E
Depth 5.1 km (3.2 miles) [...]
Published: May 7th, 2012 at 5:58 pm ET
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Maybe the MIRACLE is that SFP4 is still standing. Period.
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And to think of what's sitting there
(taken from another link but good to revisit):
• All these fuel rods are, astonishingly, exposed to the open air. They are not held inside any containment vessel.
• The total number of spent fuel rods across all six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi site is 11,421.
• If reactor No. 4 suffers a structural failure, the release of radiation from the 1,535 spent fuel rods would make it virtually impossible for work to continue on the site, potentially resulting in an inability to halt a massive radiation release from all the other rods.
• In all, the 11,421 fuel rods held at the Fukushima Daiichi facility contain roughly 336 million curies of “long-lived radioactivity.” Roughly 134 million curies of that is Cesium-137.
• “Reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.” – Mr. Robert Alvarez, U.S. Dept. of Energy
• This amount of Cesium-137 radioactivity held in the full collection of fuel rods at Fukushima is 85 times the amount released at Chernobyl.
CLOSE TO THE EDGE IS RIGHT.
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• Reactor #4 contains 1,535 spent fuel rods which remain highly radioactive.
• These fuel rods currently hold the potential to emit 37 million curies of radiation.
• Those fuel rods are stored in a concrete pool located 100 feet above the ground, inside the structurally compromised reactor building, effectively making the pool open to the air.
• The pool holding these fuel rods is “structurally damaged.”
• “If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.”
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Whoopie, I think you meant to say 'fuel assemblies.' There are far more fuel rods in SFP #4:
Why Fukushima Is a Greater Disaster than Chernobyl and a Warning Sign for the US
The radioactive inventory of all the irradiated nuclear fuel stored in spent fuel pools at Fukushima is far greater and even more problematic than the molten cores.
“…As more information is made available, we now know that the Fukushima Dai-Ichi site is storing 10,833 spent fuel assemblies (SNF) containing roughly 327 million curies of long-lived radioactivity About 132 million curies is cesium-137 or nearly 85 times the amount estimated to have been released at Chernobyl….”
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/04/24
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1. The Fuel
"The fuel used in nuclear generation is uranium 235. It is manufactured as small round pellets. A single pellet is less than an inch long, but produces the energy equivalent to a ton of coal. The pellets are placed end to end into fuel rods 12 feet long. Over 200 of these rods are grouped into what is known as a fuel assembly."
http://www.duke-energy.com/about-energy/generating-electricity/nuclear-how.asp
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11,421 fuel assemblies times 200 gives us 2,284,200 fuel rods.
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That number sounds so scary that I cannot fathom it. How would we EVER be able to get rid of that and all of the other nuclear fuel on this planet. Shoot it into outer space??? What have they done????
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A few less than that… The Mark 1 design uses 63 rods per assembly:
http://www.infowars.com/alert-fukushima-coverup-40-years-of-spent-nuclear-rods-blown-sky-high/
The newer reactors hold more rods and have control rods inserted from above instead of the deadly bottom design at Daiichi.
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And thats the most truth that I have read since day four.
Paul Joseph Watson and Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 15, 2011
We were warned long ago…
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TY, SP. 719,523 fuel rods at Fuku Daiichi.
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No problem…they lie like little dogs any way.
There is still the discrepancy from the Tepco Powerpoint where it says there are 3450 assemblies in each of the six pools:
Page 9 here:
http://criepi.denken.or.jp/result/event/seminar/2010/issf/pdf/6-1_powerpoint.pdf
Others have said that is a typo and Tepco meant the six pools had a total of 3450 rods. We often see the figure of 1500 assemblies bandied about for Unit 4 SFP.
If the 3450 per each pool figure is correct then that adds another 1 million rods to the total count for the megaplex.
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5 Kilometers is a very shallow earthquake. And only 19 miles east. There is no doubt the water was splashing around in all the pools.
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More statistics on this earthquake (USGS):
36.960°N, 141.234°E
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 at 03:59:45 AM
Depth 3.2 miles +/- 3.9 miles
This earthquake is 33.8 mi (54.47 km) SSE from Fukushima Daiichi (#1) Nuclear Power Plant +/- 12.5 miles
This earthquake is 27.2 mi (43.72 km) SSE from Fukushima Daini (#2) Nuclear Power Plant +/- 12.5 miles
http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html
Fukushima #1 37.422972N 141.032917E
Fukushima #2 37.316389N 141.025556E
Location Uncertaintyhorizontal +/- 20.1 km (12.5 miles); depth +/- 6.2 km (3.9 miles)
03:59 JST 08 May 2012 36.9N 141.4E 10 km 4.7 Fukushima-ken Oki
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/20120508040343391-080359.html
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Vermont Yankee (what a patriotic sounding name) holds north of 3,000 spent fuel assemblies in its spent fuel pool (read FOOL POOL) …
If this little swimming pool were dewatered by a stray tornado, say, or a small plane or any other of sixty million one-off ain't ever gonna happens, then the smoke and radioactive plume would find its way to the Quabbin Reservoir, metro Boston's drinking water supply, less than seventeen miles away, downwind, (most of the recharge watershed lies substantially closer than this) … and this counts for science? This counts for regulation? This counts for sound energy policy? This is in fact tempting the nuclear devil!
NEWS FLASH: The Nuclearists have invented a new game … American Roulette. This is the one where the crazy guy (insert reactor operator of your choice) loads the gun with six bullets (it's a six shooter) and spins the chamber (for comic effect) and places the barrel of the gun against your and my temple and pulls the trigger …. BANG you're dead. Sound like fun? Coming to a nuclear "spent fool pool" near you! Stay tuned, and wash your feet.
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workers today at reactor #4. strange the camera starts shaking about 3:20 or so. maybe not the same time as the earthquake tho
http://realitycheck.no-ip.info/fukushima.html
conversation also at ene webcams
http://enenews.com/forum-fukushima-webcam-discussion-thread-dec-14-2011-present
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