Posted on 03/25/2011 4:09:03 PM PDT by SteveH
The Fukushima Daiichi Incident
1. Plant Design 2. Accident Progression 3. Radiological Releases 4. Spent Fuel Pools 5. Sources of Information
Dr. Matthias Braun PEPA4-G, AREVA-NP GmbH
(Excerpt) Read more at scribd.com ...
Seems about as accurate as anything else out there (although that is not saying much).
Slide show asserts that at least one reactor’s fuel melted after boiling off coolant within the reactor vessel. Also asserts that the spent fuel in one of the fuel ponds melted.
Very good, thanks for posting.
One thing for sure, they picked a rotten time to have one entire core out and stored in the spent fuel pool...
I believe this would be unlikely. Reactor fuel melts at 3,000 degrees. The cladding surrounding the fuel rod melts at 2,000 degrees.
The water is the only radiation shielding for spent fuel. If the water boiled off, the rods would be exposed to the air, and therefore there would be radiation exposure.
We do not have any idea to what extent various fuel elements were damaged. So far isotopics suggest that Cs 137 and I131 were the main issues, but these are highly volatile products. The existence of longer lived fission products would be necessary to conclude that there was a significant breach of reactor containment.
Was watching the Japanese English news earlier this morning and they claim that the highly radioactive puddles of water could have leaked just from a valve or pipe going into the reactor. So we could just have a broken valve or pipe going to or from the reactor vessel. Those radioactive puddles contaminated three workers after they stood in a 5 inch deep puddle of water. According to English Japanese reports.
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