Posted on 04/03/2012 1:17:11 PM PDT by SatinDoll
Is the west coast of the U.S.A. going to be evacuated due to panic over "radiation"?
For those not in the know: spent nuclear fuel is kept in water-filled pools to cool the fuel rods. Once cooled sufficiently, the fuel rods are removed from the pool and STORED OUT IN THE OPEN AIR!!
This whole article stinks of sensationalism.
This is just a cover story. The real truth is Gojira was seen leaving Monster Island and he had this “this time it is for keeps!” look.
Beat me to it, darn you!
Bah, no need to worry! People eat more radiation in a banana!/s
Sick of the Freepers in total denial (yes, even you SatinDoll). I am sorry, but it’s one thing to over sensationalize the dangers, and yet another to be in total and complete denial.
Man, Godzilla needs to lay off the deserts for awhile.
>>Man, Godzilla needs to lay off the deserts for awhile.<<
Add a boob belt and you have moochele hitting the Golden Corral buffet.
Spent fuel rods are stored underwater for 10 to 20 years before being sent for reprocessing or dry cask storage. Spent fuel rods generate intense heat and dangerous radiation that must be contained. The maximum temperature of the spent fuel bundles decreases significantly between 2 and 4 years, and less from 4 to 6 years. The fuel pool water is continuously cooled (pumps) to remove the heat produced by the spent fuel assemblies.
Spent fuel pools at Fukushima are not equipped with backup water-circulation systems or backup generators for the water-circulation system. Spent fuel pools lack the concrete cocoons of operating reactors but are housed in more conventional buildings that are conceivably more susceptible to damage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_fuel_pool
I find it hard to understand that the radiation output and contamination from this is as great much less greater than from a pair of atomic bomb blasts, one Uranium and the other Plutonium based, upwind from Tokyo in August of 1945. Or from the multiple atmospheric tests conducted in the American southwest deserts within a couple hundred miles of Santa Fe and Las Vegas. Japan and the States of Nevada and New Mexico seem to have survived those just fine.
Abandon all hope, Tokyo.
That is actually embarrassing.
Our First lady? God.
This Communist Witch really has no clue. Unfortunately for us, she is a very slow learner.
Good Grief!!!!!
She looks like one of the Cathouse Girls waiting in the parlor at the Bunny Ranch in Nevada.
Can you imagine ANY other First Lady dressing like that?
You know....maybe it’s time that we put the card on the table and just offer a free-entry card (green card) to any Japanese citizen who wants one. I wouldn’t have a single problem with two million Japanese folks moving into the US, and I suspect most Americans would readily agree that it’d be the right thing and neighborly thing to do.
>>I wouldn’t have a single problem with two million Japanese folks moving into the US, and I suspect most Americans would readily agree that it’d be the right thing and neighborly thing to do.<<
That would be a lot of neighborhoods upgraded and the biggest problem would be grade inflation at the schools.
No kidding on this — my suburban childhood neighborhood became a gang-terrorized barrio when I moved out in the late 70s to go to college.
Funny, I just read another article here that said the fish from Fukushima are safe to eat, but somehow they’re worried about evacuating Tokyo... I don’t think so.
One of the bombs dropped on Japan was a plutonium bomb. By design it was intended to convert a maximum amount of the plutonium into destructive energy. Any plutonium remaining after the blast would be wasteful.
From years back I recall reading that the U.S. only had a 30 year supply of uranium for powering reactors. The solution to that problem was to build "breeder" reactors which would not only supply energy but would convert some of the uranium into plutonium which could then be separated out and used to power plutonium reactors. Such a process would then give us a 300 year supply of nuclear energy.
So, we are comparing a nuclear weapon explosion where it was intended to destroy all of the plutonium with spent reactor fuel which may have been intended to create plutonium.
I don't know the extent to which my explanation would apply specifically to Fukishima. I think I read that at least one of the reactors was powered by plutonium. At some point the fuel would be "spent" to the point that the reactor would not be efficient, but that might still leave half or more of the original plutonium in the spent rods.
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