Nuclear Expert: All it takes is coolant to stop circulating at Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 for extensive fuel damage to occur — Doesn’t have to leak, crack, or fall for fuel to overheat

Published: April 29th, 2012 at 6:45 pm ET
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Title: Why Nuclear Scientists Have Missed the Danger of Spent Fuel Pools
Source: Akio Matsumura
Author: Gordon Edwards
Date: Jan. 23, 2012

Dear Akio,

You asked me why there has been so little warning from the “nuclear establishment” (TEPCO and the regulatory agency) about the potential for catastrophic accidents involving the spent fuel pool in reactor number 4.

In the field of nuclear safety, the focus of attention has always been on analyzing and preventing catastrophic accidents involving the core of the reactor.  In comparison, little attention has been paid over the years to catastrophic accident scenarios involving the spent fuel pool.

[...] the radioactive inventory in the spent fuel pool is often much greater than that in the core of the reactor, and a prolonged loss of coolant — or even loss of circulation of coolant — will lead to overheating of the fuel and extensive fuel damage. This will result in significant releases of radioactive fission products into the atmosphere due to the inadequate or even non-existent containment provided for the spent fuel pool. [...]

Read the report here

See also: Canadian Nuclear Scientist: Another, even more dangerous possibility than fire at Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 -- Re-initiation of chain reaction can occur if fuel rods move slightly, an "accidental criticality"

Published: April 29th, 2012 at 6:45 pm ET
By
Email Article Email Article
36 comments

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  1. NYT: Threat of catastrophic radioactive release from a spent fuel pool at Fukushima is dwarfed by risk posed by pools in U.S., study says May 24, 2011
  2. “Worse than a meltdown” says expert — “Spent nuclear fuel pool catches fire”: Japan Power Company March 15, 2011
  3. Nuclear Engineer: Far more radioactivity inside spent fuel ponds than in reactors — Could very well produce damage greater than Chernobyl March 15, 2011
  4. IAEA Meeting: Concern of Fukushima spent fuel pool collapse as aftershock “should be caused in near future” September 24, 2012
  5. Coalition requests Japan gov’t immediately ask UN for help with Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 before it becomes too late May 2, 2012

36 comments to Nuclear Expert: All it takes is coolant to stop circulating at Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 for extensive fuel damage to occur — Doesn’t have to leak, crack, or fall for fuel to overheat

  • Anthony Anthony

    Fukushima – Our Entire Civilization is Hanging by a Thread PDF Print
    Sunday, 29 April 2012 12:02

    http://hamsayeh.net/articles/1770-fukushima-our-entire-civilization-is-hanging-by-a-thread.html


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  • TheBigPicture TheBigPicture

    Those responsible for nuclear safety are over their heads. And always have been, as proven by every nuclear disaster that has happened. And the accidents are still contaminating our environment. The concept of controlling atomic energy failed. It's failing today. And will fail tomorrow. Those in office must address this. We are watching, and waiting.


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    • What-About-The-Kids

      In a word:"anomalolies "Yup." ;-) Over their head, but too proud and ignorant to admit it, or to realize it, or both…

      Well, we will no longer be fooled by their silly, foolish posturing. We KNOW the truth guys, so ya might as well come clean and throw in the towel.

      Playtime is over. Take off those Big Boy suits and time to clean up your (sadly self-irradiated) sandboxes.


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  • Whoopie Whoopie

    "little attention has been paid over the years to catastrophic accident scenarios involving the spent fuel pool"
    This is huge news. To think these guys never EVER took this into consideration blows my mind! What's worse is the companies who build these reactors. G.E. ect. They HAD/have to know. This Agency needs MAJOR CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT TODAY! What can we do? How can we reel in an agency that has been running wild for decades? omg.


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  • Jaskal

    Congressional Oversight? That's the big plan?
    All corrupt to the core (no pun).
    Congress, GE… same shit.


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  • CB CB

    The following text is an edited was published in Lectures "Tokai Earthquake and Hamaokagenpatsu accident" of Sha issued by Hisataka Yamazaki dandelion. We thank Sha dandelion. Sha dandelion issued booklet is here
    ~?~
    http://www.stop-hamaoka.com/kaisetu/pool.html


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  • many moons

    Maybe nuclear anything was developed and pitch by a few psychos who knew one day that there efforts would destroy the earth, and the used the ignorant and greedy to bring it all about in the form of these disaster riddled nuclear plants.


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    • tomarsandbeyond tomarsandbeyond

      no, its not a plan from the start to ruin the earth. Its children with a new toy, a toy that can also go boom, seeing what they can do with it, not really taking into account the consequences. Short term gain vs a lot of long term risk. At least with Japan it can be said they have limited resources so they might need the energy. But there was never enough incentive or wisdom applied to this technology for nuclear to be safe. Its like those same children (all over the world) playing with toys, but they are running around with rusty scissors and loaded guns. GMO foods, weaponized microbes, really are showing up to be very comparable to this.


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      • many moons

        They think everything they invent is wonderful…they can improve on millions of years of evelution, while destroying something they could never even image the supreme perfection and complexity of life.


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        • What-About-The-Kids

          Well said, ManyMoons. Profoundly sad to know we allow such ingnorant exploits to continue to spoil Nature's infinite perfection.


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          • HoTaters HoTaters

            Talked with a "health physicist" with the Calif. Public Health Dept. last week. He's of the opinion even if SPF #4 spilled/burned, and every other SPF at Daichi, the whole plant burned/blew up, it wouldn't be that harmful !!!!!!!

            He said it would probably spill into the sea (where's he getting THAT idea) ?

            I mentioned Robert Alvarez said Fukushima Daichi could release 85X as much Cesium (137?) as Chernobyl, and he still downplayed the risk.

            "Health physicist" indeed. What an oxymoron.


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  • AGreenRoad AGreenRoad

    There are many ways that the pro nukers are dooming the planet to a future of suffering and death..

    Dr. Helen Caldicott MD On Nuclear Weapons, MAD/Nuclear Armageddon; via A Green Road Blog
    http://agreenroad.blogspot.com/2012/04/dr-helen-caldicott-md-on-nuclear.html

    It is time to get rid of nuclear weapons and the fear/hatred that drives them into existence.


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    • AGreenRoad AGreenRoad

      Hmmm, moderated? What does that mean?


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      • ENENews

        It means I have written to you at least 5 times requesting you put no more than 2 links per post to your personal blog. I also added a new rule (see under 'Submit Comment' button). You have continued to ignore this…

        Here is the personal email I sent you yesterday:

        —————————————–

        Hello,
        Links to personal blogs are still allowed, just no more than 2 links per post. This policy has been in place for several days but it appears you have not seen it. Until you write back and acknowledge that you will be following the new rule, your comments will be going into moderation.
        Thanks,
        Admin


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      • moonshellblue moonshellblue

        They want you to limit your links. Instead of posting a whole slew of links just post two. No worries.


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  • NoNukes NoNukes

    The coolant did "stop circulating" in sfp4, which did crack, and the NRC transcripts said that the fuel was "gone," within 24 hours. I just want to scoop up all the innocent people and other creatures, get us all somewhere safe, but where can that be?


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    • HoTaters HoTaters

      NoNukes, I didn't see the NRC report stating the fuel was "gone" from SPF #4. Which report was that? I read the rest of it, though. Was it the report from 3/18/11 ?


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  • Yes, who would have thought?:

    Nuclear experts: Fukushima crisis may become 'global catastrophe'
    Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/323733#ixzz1tUxYXqlk
    http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/323733

    It already is, but we're still waiting for the icing on the cake.


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  • mikael

    I am so fu.. iritated that its almoust difficould to sitt still.

    This shitt has becomed a story of 2 Feild, the one everybody writes about, witch is becomed a sycle of neverending repetittions of the same lame shitt thats been confiremd a Year ago.

    The 2 Feilds notion is a more disturbing one, the fact that Fukushima Daiichi and Dai ini is both situatet "luckely" on the Seashore, where the general windpattern is AWAY from Land, and I belive the nubers used are wurthless and missleading at best.
    Where is the Actual sites and How many are there, metering the situation.
    And I cant imagine they have SHIPS outside the coustline to constantly mesure radiation, do they, probably Not.
    And dont forgett the Subterain leakings of water.
    The number is a lie.
    Simply putt.

    I sincerly hope that at this stage of seriousness and when the grimness of our comon future is at the brinkof the Abyss, that there are some grownups that can cutt thrue the driwel and wake the fu.. up.

    This is The first stepp to oblivion, and all that just to save some SheerHolder and Finnans Inst. a..

    Is this realy worth it.

    huh

    fu..

    peace

    “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
    ― Denis Diderot


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    • enoughalready45 enoughalready45

      Hi Mikael,

      I believe many of us who have been tracking Fukushima since it happened are as equally "fu.. irritated".

      The lack of meaningful discourse on the true seriousness of this situation in the main stream media, among politicians, government agencies and the general public is madning.

      My belief is that the situation is even worse than everyone has been able to figure out even on this site and that it will get worse. At this point I am mad at myself for being in "observation" mode for so long instead of "action" mode but I'm switching gear now.


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  • RutherfordsGhost

    This is all as clear as the water in the Pool.


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  • Wotcha Wotcha

    Mmmmn ……. SO, they are still pouring in coolant under that new white protective sheeting? It didn't look like it from the recent Tepco's PR pictures. TBH I find it hard to believe there is actually still a SFP with fuel rods in there. Surely they wouldn't have been able to tear the building apart so vigorously as has been seen on webcam, or have those workers standing around looking so relaxed, if the highly dangerous SFP at R4 was still intact. Just saying ……..


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    • moonshellblue moonshellblue

      And what condition are the rods in? Although at this juncture with Reactor 3 blown to smithereens what does it matter and the Japanese had a one, two, three punch and the third being the nuclear disaster was just far too great too handle during those initial days after the earthquake and tsunami. I guess now it is too late to dig under, cover and bombard the reactors with everything but the kitchen sink so to speak. I just wish we would start cleaning up our own mess of spent fuel pools by dry casking, oh yeah, that's right they are too expensive so we'll just keep tossing them into the precarious spent fuel pools until we have our own Fukushima. I'm so frustrated beyond words. I wish they would put nuclear on the ballot this fall. NO NUKES


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      • HoTaters HoTaters

        'Heard somewhere the "blow it up" option may still be on the table. Nuke the nuke plant?

        Maybe I'm mistaken. That was being considered in the beginning. It might now be too late for such an option. 'Sounded horrendous at the time but maybe it would have been the best thing ….


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  • Cisco Cisco

    When the SFP at #4 reactor is breached and the resulting radioactive firestorm ensues, half of the Island of Honshu will have to be evacuated. There are reports that the Japanese government have been in talks with China and Russia discussing the potential of evacuating 40 million people, and the associated logistics. Some predict this event will collapse the economy of Japan, and in turn, its status as a sovereign nation.

    The resulting and ongoing radioactive releases (air and water) will contaminate the entire northern hemisphere. No country will be spared. Following the jet stream blowing west, the US and Canadian coasts will be the most hard hit/contaminated. The entire US will not be spared.

    This will be the beginning of the end for millions of people, and a mass corruption of the *gene pool for man and all other living creatures and plants. This will be the end of nuclear power, too; but, it will be the end of many of us, coincidently.

    If you think those who created this nuclear power electricity scheme will be able to contain Fukushima; think again. The same folks who got us into this mess, are the ones charged with fixing it…WTF? Remember the Deepwater Horizon and how the offender BP was left to be the fixer…insanity.

    *Gene pool corruption…see this Chernobyl preview of our future… http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl


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  • Mothercares

    Hi Planetary Friends,so every one of us is pissed off. Lets do something about it. There are 313,232,044 +/- people in the US right now. Just the US, so where do 313+/- million people go, for safety. Out of that 313 mil, appx. 1% will get out of here. It leaves the rest of us on our own. When the final blow comes and nobody wants to listen, seriously listen. It becomes quite clear what we have to do to survive. If we stay in place, as it is suggested, others are not going to be too kind to you. In regards to food, water, shelter. So, you have the other side of the coin, protection from outside. Be prepared, are you prepared to do what you have to, in order to survive. Or Leave the US, just plain go south. How's that for something to chew on, because I am at that point right now. However, convincing those that you love, that its for there own good, will be harder….


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    • moonshellblue moonshellblue

      Yes that is the problem convincing others. They assume everything is fine and there is nothing to worry about or surely our government would handle the situation. I have the means to the southern hemisphere but convincing my family? That is a big problem Mothecares.


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  • gerryhiles

    No point, MC, to "going south" because both hemispheres are linked by both air and water currents.

    The movie "On the Beach" (from the book by Neville Shute) was a fictional foretaste of how, eventually, Australia was/is contaminated by radio-active contamination from the north.

    I seldom comment because as soon as I learned about Fukushima, I assumed it would be a global extinction event … and said so here in Enenews.

    Of course I like to keep abreast of what is happening with Fukushima – also the global economy and with the lead-up to probable WW3 – but I no longer hope, let alone believe, that anything can be done in any context, including sundry personal ones.

    "But how can you live like that?" I have been asked (I literally do not believe in anything). Well I don't really know, but I observe that other animals live in the absence of abstractions that our species generate and usually cling to, so why wouldn't I? Besides there is some comfort in "letting go" and thus not battling with reality (what is), denial and frequently spurious contradictions and/or paradoxes.

    Examples are: no longer being concerned with "left vs right", nor whether or not a god exists, nor even 'morality' because I find that I spontaneously tend not to harm anyone. In any case I'll live until I don't, though I do hope that I go quickly.

    A friend of mine fortunately just died quickly from a stroke. Understand?? If I was in Japan I'd stay amongst friends. There is…


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  • gerryhiles

    I have to admit to being 'lucky' for being close to the end of my life anyway … 69 and with three previous bouts with cancer.

    I don't envy younger people at all, but seeing that my natural scepticism had me basically suspending belief many years ago, it may help others to know that it is possible to "let go", but keep on living much like everyone else anyway, or much like all other animals do in any case.


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    • HoTaters HoTaters

      gerryhiles, unlike you I'm strongly spiritually motivated. But like you, I don't see the point in trying to survive if things become so hopeless. I have no desire to live in a world where humans are clawing each other to death in a frantic attempt to prolong their lives for a short time. What's the point?

      I forget who it is right now, but there's someone here who is from New Zealand. He recently gave a radio interview and said since the jet stream is often split, the Southern Hemisphere has been getting a lot of radiation. He said there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. I tend to agree. Peter ____ ? Will need to go back into the last couple of days' stories to find his post. He put up a link to the interview. Maybe he has a radio program in New Zealand? He has been posting info. on the spikes there for some time now.

      Anyway, I've had a chronic illness for years now, so I'm not so attached to life. Made my peace with God a long time ago. I'm not afraid of what may happen in this life or the life to come.

      That being said, mankind has failed miserably in his/her duty to be a good steward of the earth.


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      • HoTaters HoTaters

        I have no illusions about what it could be like if things reach dire straits. If Japan's economy collapses, so goes the entire world economy.

        David Bowie wrote a song years ago called "Diamond Dogs." That's the kind of world I envision if things reach dire straits. I have no desire to live in that kind of a world. When it comes to the point where everyone is shooting each other just to have food and water, there's no point in being around anymore. My opinion, anyway.

        If there's no quality of life, why live?


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      • BreadAndButter BreadAndButter

        Morning HoTaters, I think it was Vital1 who had the Interview?!


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  • Mothercares

    Hi Gerryhiles,

    I have lived well myself with a good and great man, 2 wonderful kids 13 & 10, so there you have it. I am not good at letting chips fall where they may, nor am I good at not doing nothing either. I believe in helping eachother and being the best that we can be, regardless of the circumstances, religous belief's, or your place in life. Nor do I consider myself on par with animals, because they are innocent as well. Due to our infalliable interest of beating the odds, trying to improve our life has most undoubtly caused a lot of the issues we have today. There is and always will be a better way to deal with the paths in our lives, its how we respect the path that we cross, to better our life and our future life of our decendents.


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  • waves4me

    Wish i had the means. I'd be gone yesterday. Got a nice little farm site on my radar in panama.


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