Posted on 04/10/2011 6:09:41 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Critics Claim Nuke Plants Not Ready For The End Of The World
Lawmakers and industry critics are urging regulators to demand answers from nuclear power plant licensees for how they would deal with cataclysmic events. They claim the plants could melt down and contaminate large areas under certain extreme scenarios.
“In any number of scenarios the nuclear industry is totally unprepared, such as the sun going supernova, a giant asteroid or comet impacting the earth, or an alien invasion. Let’s say for example, if a black hole swallows the earth. What safety systems will remain in place to prevent a meltdown? ”, said Edward DeGette, Democrat from California.
NRC documents obtained through freedom of information requests by the Union of Concerned Scientists indicate that plants have intentionally not prepared for situations that involve loss of offsite power due to planet-wide disasters. “In these situations, support from offsite would be very limited. Inadequate preparations for world-cataclysms could easily lead to multiple core meltdowns”, said Tom Vincent, Union of Concerned Scientists director. “Industry representatives claim that because these scenarios are so unlikely, important systems have not been installed to deal with them.”
/sarcasm off
But what is the enrichment level? Particularly if it is “spent.”
I think you are right that there are areas around the reactor that are abandoned. I recommend the youtube video. Actually it’s a documentary series. It really does not focus on the reoccupation of the area, but more on the efforts of the scientists to contain it, and it’s quite interesting. They don’t mention the reoccupation of the city until the very end. But I found it interesting that people were moving back in just a few years after the accident. If you just read about it in the Western press, you’d think that the area was rendered uninhabitable for thousands of years.
Japanese police, Self-Defense Force troops and U.S. military started searching for bodies with the 10 km radius for the first time Thursday.
The fact that they are searching for bodies within the 10km radius is a good sign. It means both that these searchers don't have any more important tasks, and that they feel the risk of radiation is low enough to make it worthwhile to do what amounts to a clean-up operation looking for dead people.
This web site has a chart of what it claims is the total weight of fuel in the fuel pools; based on a weight of 170kg per assembly. The pools contain multiple loads, so it's clear the reactors didn't have that much fuel. Also reactor one is smaller than the others, so it has less fuel.
Also, less than half the mass of a fuel rod is uranium.
This site says there is .127 tones per assembly, which is 127 kg. It also says there are 534 assemblies per core in 2 and 3, and half that (267) in reactor 1. That's 68 tons total for reactor 2 and 3, and 34 tons for reactor 1.
Like I said, every site has a different number, but no reputable site I've seen has a number as high as 144.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spent_nuclear_fuel
96% of the mass is the remaining uranium: most of the original 238U and a little 235U.
Spent nuclear fuel
The fission products include every element from zinc through to the lanthanides; much of the fission yield is concentrated in two peaks, one in the second transition row (Zr, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh,Pd, Ag) and the other later in the periodic table (I,Xe, Cs, Ba, La, Ce, Nd). Many of the fission products are either non-radioactive or only short-livedradioisotopes. But a considerable number are medium to long-lived radioisotopes such as 90Sr,137Cs, 99Tc and 129I.
Plutonium
About 1% of the mass is239Up and 240Upresulting from conversion of 238U, which may be considered either as a useful byproduct, or as dangerous and inconvenient waste.
I have to laugh about these clowns running their own radiation tests.
They’re either stupid or liars. If they’re being honest about the level of alpha emitting radionuclides in the areas, then they’re being utterly stupid in using these pansy-assed comfort masks for their breathing protection. I would be taking a P100 full face respirator (already have one from my days of farming and using pesticides) into the area, and using a brand new filter.
Or they’re being dishonest and BS’ing everyone as to what their meters are actually reading, hence the casual protective gear.
Considering the relative costs of their silly meters and a full-face respirator, I don’t know what to believe. A full face respirator and a box of filters can be had for less money than their meters.
"I have one of those geigers like that and if it was going off like at the beginning of the video even I’d be freaking out and they’re really far away from it and out in the middle of nowhere."In the beginning of the video its going off at roughly 70-100 counts per minute. No more than 100. Hardly the reason to freak out. You start to pay attention when the counts start to sound like a continuous chirp. And then your Geigeir will likely be swamped (most are overloaded at somewhere near 0.01-0.05 mSv) and you will need a better instrument with a higher range, like an scintillation counter :) A good respirator to protect yourself from breathing in alpha and beta-emitting nuclides is what you really need before going into that area. And a dosimeter with 1-5 Sv range to protect yourself from walking into real hotspots
The chirping is the built in ‘over 3x background’ limit by default. You can turn that off so it still only does clicks.
Either way, when you’ve seen one in person and how quiet they are normally and then what’s going on there in the wide open, creepy.
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