Evidence of periodic chain reaction at Fukushima Unit 1 (truncated title)

Fairewinds Associates ^ | 4/3/2011 | Arnold Gundersen

[FReepaholic]

Newly released TEPCO data provides evidence of periodic chain reaction at Fukushima Unit 1

http://vimeo.com/21881702

New Images Reveal Nuclear Fuel Rack Exposed to Air

http://vimeo.com/21789121

[FReepaholic]

These are from a guy named Arnold Gundersen at a company called Fairewinds Associates. Here's part of his bio at the company website:

Arnie is an energy advisor with 39-years of nuclear power engineering experience. A former nuclear industry senior vice president, he earned his Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in nuclear engineering, holds a nuclear safety patent, and was a licensed reactor operator. During his nuclear industry career, Arnie managed and coordinated projects at 70-nuclear power plants around the country.

Fairewinds Associates website

I stumbled on this site. I thought it interesting enough to post.

[D-fendr]

Google Gunderson...

[FReepaholic]

...Google Gunderson...

Ok, the results are below. Now what?

• The Greenbrier Companies - Gunderson, Gunderson-Concarril ...

  Diversified railroad freight car builder, railcar refurbisher, and marine barge builder. Features profile, latest news and service listings.
  www.gbrx.com/Manufacturing_Home.php - Cached
• Gundersen Lutheran Health System - Gundersen Lutheran

  Based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Gundersen Lutheran is an integrated healthcare organization serving 19 counties in western Wisconsin, southeast Minnesota and ...
  www.gundluth.org/ - Cached - Similar
• Gunderson High School

  Gunderson High School 2011. Welcome to Grizzly Country.
  gunderson.sjusd.org/ - Cached - Similar
• Gunderson Funeral Home

  Gunderson Funeral Home, serving the Madison, WI and the surronding areas of Middleton, Cross Plains, Oregon, Stoughton, Sun Prairie, Waunakee, DeForest, ...
  www.gundersonfh.com/ - Cached - Similar
• Gunderson's Jewelry - Fine Jewelry and Collectibles

  Brian Gunderson recognized for 30 Years of Membership in the Independant Jewelers Organization (4/1/11) - LOCAL JEWELER RECOGNIZED FOR MILESTONE IN ...
  www.gundersons.com/ - Cached - Similar
• Clifton Gunderson LLP

  Clifton Gunderson LLP is a nationwide firm of certified public accountants and consultants, offering a range of services from federal tax support to ...
  www.cliftoncpa.com/ - Cached - Similar

[D-fendr]

Sorry.

I should have been more specific.

[null and void]

ping

[bitterohiogunclinger]

From that bit of evidence it sounds like Gunderson is more of an environmental hack than an expert.

[D-fendr]

I think that possibility is well worth considering in this case.

[FReepaholic]

Well, I never heard of this guy. Whether he's an enviro nut or not he lays out his theory based on the scientific evidence as he saw it so, I imagine other scientists/engineers will either confirm it or refute it.

It won't be me. I'm just a guy surfing the 'net trying to find info on the disaster.

[maine-iac7]

valuable.

Seems like the first straight out facts since the tsunami

[RummyChick]

Surf the net here..they go back and for about Gunderson...and other scientific things

http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=480200&page=180

This post hasn’t been debunked yet
http://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=3229751&postcount=2860

and reminds me of something that might support the Chinese bloggers who think Japan was working on weapons and that is why they refused help.

[D-fendr]

I understand. The medium of internet forum communication leaves a lot to be desired. I appreciate your post and meant nothing against you. I, too, was offering information for considerations.

best regards.

[maine-iac7]

Why don't you at LEAST google his whole name - be a bit more honest, doncha think?

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-msgr&p=Arnold%20Gundersen&type=

Too many people stubbornly sticking their heads in the sand and denying there's anything to be concerned about.

In between the ‘Sky is Falling’ crowd and the ostriches, lies the truth.

This man certainly isn't jumping up and down. He's simply and quietly laying out the facts as he sees them - and he seems to have the creds to know what he's talking about.

In addition, he's not an cover-butt politician or official of the plant or an employee told what to and not to say.

We need SOME one to tell us what it going on. ARNOLD Gundersen is not yelling panic. He's simply stating the case. We have a right to know - and NO ONE wants to tell us the truth...covering their financial, liability hides.

[D-fendr]

In between the ‘Sky is Falling’ crowd and the ostriches, lies the truth.

I agree.

ARNOLD Gundersen is not yelling panic.

He's the author of the widely repeated "Chernobyl on steroids" comment early on. For me, this was a red flag. That said, I welcome knowledgeable folks on both sides.

[justa-hairyape]

Those are interesting points and the US is helping Japan switch to freshwater reactor injection. The Japanese themselves however seem to be most concerned about reactor #2. However they are also reporting some Neutron measurements now.

Check the last sentence (There was no neutron dose detected) in this report.

Radiation measured in the waters and air (Fukushima Plant) April 4th 2011

[SuperLuminal]

All we need now, to add to this comedic gaggle of those who want their moment in the spotlight, is for Carl Sagan to rise from the dead...

"billions and billions" of pieces of the sky are falling...
"billions and billions" of people will die from Fu......ima radiation...

[TXnMA]

Useful information. Thank you.

HOWEVER: first of all, the second video shows reactor building #4 (four) -- not reactor bldg #1.

They are easy to distinguish: the (transite?) sheet cladding and roof panels of the upper two floors were blown clean off of building 1 (to the right of the rightmost vent tower in the photo below); it now appears to be shorter than #2 (to its left), which still has most of its walls and roof panels intact.

(FWIW, the structure of building #2 is similar to that of #1. It has retained all of its wall and roof cladding -- except for a single wall panel on the seaward ide ...through which steam is seen to be venting.)

Building #4 is at left -- to the right of the leftmost vent tower. Building #4 is of a cast-in-place concrete frame construction -- with inset (precast concrete?) wall panels which are mostly missing from all floors. #4 is the buiding with the surviving CCTV camera providing the view of the (empty) fuel pool

The fuel rack is clearly exposed in #4 -- and that is where ALL of the fuel is. (During routine shutdown, it was removed from the RPV and stored in the fuel racks.) The bad news is that that fuel rack is no longer surrounded and covered by water; the pool is dry..

IMO, the damage pattern to the concrete structure in #4 reveals evidence of poor-quality concrete materials in that building. Worse, one of the stupid deficiencies in the GE Mark 1 design is that the fuel storage pool is suspended several floors above grade -- and is made of concrete -- which is susceptible to cracking. Also IMO, the fuel pool walls/floor in the #4 fuel pool cracked (due to earthquake and/or H₂ explosion) and the pool is leaking faster than they can fill it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Gunderson may not know the details of the entire scenario, but he obviously knows a fuel storage pool and fuel storage cell when he sees one. (Remember, his company made and sold fuel storage racks of BORON -- which is not a common fabrication job...)

However, when he talks about "plutonium", I suspect he is confusing the MOX fuel in building #3 with the UOX fuel in building #4 -- which he is discussing.

~~~~~~~~~~

Again, thanks for the links! IMHO, we need much more rational, technical facts and discussion of this event -- and a whole heckuva lot less of the half-witted hyperbole that is being spouted here.

[catnipman]

Thanks for posting this. His information regarding the implications of isotopes with very short half-lives and the fact they must be undergoing continuous production to be detected is significant.

It’s also self-evident that the neutron-beams that TEPCO reported a week ago can only come from exposed nuclear fuel that is still intermittently fissioning, and that this can be happening only because there are globs of nuclear fuel sitting at the bottom of (and most likely melted through) one or more containment vessels and/or spent-rod pools.

I don’t know why anyone is even arguing about whether a meltdown has occurred or not at this point. Having read dozens of reports and read many physics blogs discussing all of this, the evidence is overwhelming that it has.

The real question is what the hell are the Japanese going to do to keep the radiation contamination from getting worse.

Excerpts:

“Japanese engineers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have been forced to release radioactive waste water into the sea. At the same time they are resorting to desperate measures to contain the damage, such as using bath salts to try to locate the source of leaks ... engineers are no closer to regaining control of the power plant or stopping radioactive leaks. ... engineers are no closer to regaining control of the power plant or stopping radioactive leaks.”

Earlier:

“The government expects that several months may be required before radioactive particles stop being released from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, its top spokesman said Sunday.”

Does this sound to anyone here like the Japanese have any clue whatsoever as to what to do about this mess?

Me neither. Radiation from Japan has already started contaminating our food. And now the Japanese say they’re going to continue to send radiation our way and continue to contaminate our food for months? It’s time for the U.S. government to protect us from this mess. It’s time for the U.S. government to get medieval on their asses, namely force the Japanese to quit f**king around and take international help to quickly develop a plan to entomb these suckers and then quickly implement it.

If necessary, force a U.N. resolution for the U.N. (lead by the U.S.) to take this thing over. Bring in the real experts, namely those Russians who are left alive that figured out what to do at Chernobyl. Force Japan to give up control by threatening them with cutoff of all aid and all commerce if necessary.

Facing the prospect of having our entire food supply radioactively contaminated indefinitely is not something the U.S. should just sit back and passively accept. In terms of the future benefit to our children, the billions we’re spending on bombing Libya would be much better spent on entombing Fukusiha.

Naturally, I know none of this will happen. Our “leader” is an ideologue with the credentials of a community organizer who is focused exclusively on implementing his ideology. There is no room in his agenda for adapting to present dangers. There is no capability of understanding what we are about to face. There is no capability to foresee the future and to react to changing it. There is no concern for the well-being of American citizens. There is no understanding of when and how to wield American power to protect us. There is no ability to recognize what is truly dangerous. There is no ability to prioritize what is important and what is not.

All I can say is, “God help us, because Obama’s not going to”.

[TXnMA]

Gunderson's first video makes sense to this physical chemist/engineer. The very presence of the "fresh" short half-life species -- and neutrons -- is strong evidence of fission. It is also evidence that heavy-element radionuclide particles from that fission are venting (escaping) from Unit #1.

I also agree that they should be dumping boric acid ("Boron") into RPV #1 to "poison" (quench) any possible fission.

Those poor devils who are trying to control that disaster are dealing with a real "dog's breakfast" of problems. Each of the four northernmost reactors/buildings (#1 - #4) presents a diferent set of problems:

• #1: Possible re-criticality and venting (from the RPV?)

• #2: Probable damage to the (below-grade) "steam suppressor torus" -- with leaks of highly radioactive water directly into the ocean.

• #3: MOX fuel (containing Plutonium) in a badly-blasted building. I suspect the fuel-storage pool is cracked and leaking (contaminated) water (almost as fast as they can add it) and exposing the fuel storage rack & rods. Bad news!

• #4: Almost certain mechanical damage to the fuel storage pool (cracked and leaking rapidly) -- which makes it almost impossible to keep the stored fuel covered with (and shielded by) water.

• All: Structural damage and debris making it nigh-impossible for them to see (much less access -- even with equipment) the areas that they need to be "fixing"...

Those workers deserve and need all the prayers we can send them!!!

[justa-hairyape]

Latest seawater readings for iodine and cesium very high !

High level of iodine-131 detected in Fukushima