Posted on 05/23/2012 2:05:27 PM PDT by JohnKinAK
Former Fukushima Daiichi Worker: ‘I believe the country will be evacuated if No. 4 fuel pool collapses’ — ‘Should be hundreds or thousands of people working furiously every day’ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Canine has 15 years experience as a Health Physics Technician, Chemist and Radiation Safety Instructor. He has worked at over 20 plants throughout the United States, Japan and Mexico — including Fukushima #1 and #2 in the late 1970′s.
On May 15, 2012 he wrote:
There are several reasons why I believe the country will be evacuated if the #4 SFP collapses. The amount of radioactive material in the fuel pool dwarfs the total amount at Chernobyl by a factor of 5 to 10. Chernobyl’s core was still mostly contained in a building (although heavily damaged), and most of the radioactive material melted downward and became lava like. If #4 SFP collapses it will be lying on the completely open ground, probably going critical on and off in portions of the pile for years. The dose rate from this pile will make dropping sand or anything from the air much more lethal than anything at Chernobyl. And probably impossible. The entire site at Fukushima will be uninhabitable and unworkable because of the dose rate coming from this pile of fuel. That means there will be no control of the other fuel pools, and we could lose control of them.
Nuclear experts will soft sell the ramifications because that is how the industry works. When the experts “have concerns” about the situation at #4 that means they are pooping their pants. My experience at Fukushima was 30 years ago. I worked in the industry for about 15 years as a health physics technician. I was also referred to as a “nuclear gypsy” because I traveled from plant to plant working outages. That meant I was always in the middle of the hottest jobs in the heart of the plant. The engineers will talk about this part or that part of a plant, but I have been all those places wearing full gear. He later noted: “No reasonable person with my type experience would question my conclusion if any of the fuel pools collapse. There should be hundreds or thousands of people working furiously every day to get the buildings fortified and the fuel moved.”
I’ll take Hawaii ( The Big Island ) . Already lived in NY . No way I’m going back there even thought my family all live on Long Island .
“I hope the pool holds. Can anyone guess how long the period of extreme danger is?”
It’s passed. You missed it.
The most dangerous period was before the damaged structure holding the pool was reinforced.
Being they are in the same spot and in a line, I am going to vote on headlights.
This is a tremendous opportunity for Japan. They clean up this site, just like they cleaned up Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and they will be the go-to experts in cleaning up dirty nuke sites. This is a growth industry.
Not to worry. The Japanese can take it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7xSG_k0cZc
Hey, hey, hey! I live in NY.
You can come and stay with us for free if you bring Endo Shozo and Tanaka Naoki from Cocorico with you for my girls.
There is probably a concrete wall on the right side of the picture. Maybe the camera is mounted on that wall. Then the flashes would be simply headlights of a car, with light going in between panels of the wall.
You can see that the light is coming as a narrow beam from that side (from the right, behind the camera) because it illuminates only few objects. The duration of the light also corresponds to a typical movement of a vehicle.
At least that's what Mr. Occam says.
And the Chinese wouldn't exactly welcome them with open arms--which is what I was getting at without writing an explicit /S tag.
Amen. The Japanese people are wonderful. The other two mentioned groups hate us so our country would benefit and prosper.
Visa’s for settlement in Alaska should be given, they’d bring the state alive and make it an economic powerhouse
A great idea! I like it a lot! I’m sure it violates some treaty, though.
But then, I liked the notion of “breeder reactors” that actually produced more fuel than they used. But I think that’s how we got Godzilla....
AFAIK, the only thing preventing reprocessing now is Jimmy Carter’s executive order preventing it. There may be federal legislation passed after that, but I am unaware of any.
The logistics of transporting spent fuel to a processing facility would be the biggest obstruction to overcome, but again, this is something the Navy has proven to be safe—they transport spent fuel from Washington state, where decommissioned nuke boats are scrapped, to their facility in eastern Idaho.
Considering the “title” matter in the left hand column, it’s a leftist site.
Best idea I’ve heard so far. But then, we don’t want to let everyone know we have nukes in space.
My guess is there is no commercial viability to reprocessing. Since the Carter days, we’ve choked off nuclear power, so it would be “Reprocess fuel for what reactors??”
Of course I think that's part of the rub preventing reprocessing...there are vested financial interests in the uranium supply business that would be hurt by an increased supply on the market. And I'm sure those very same interests have poured a great deal of money into politician's pockets to keep the status quo.
Not quite. Three Mile Island experienced a complete meltdown. As with the other meltdowns, which occurred at well below the predicted incidence of meltdowns. No one was hurt and the reactor has now been completely dismantled.
The non-commercial plant in Ukraine, at Chernobyl, was covered with concrete because the economy of the USSR couldn't afford more immediate decommissioning. But no one was hurt. No nuclear plant has ever hurt anyone with its releases of radioactivity. Coal/electric plants generally release more radioactivity than commercial nuclear plants, which doesn't mean they aren't safe.
This article is the usual BS, probably driven by the perennial war on capitalism. Few people realized, because it isn't news the media want to publish, that there is no mode of electrical generation with a safety record close to nuclear generation. Few people know how easy it is to detect radiation. Technicians and engineers know the risks, and, out of self interest, pay attention.
Plant designs have gotten better and better, but the availability of oil and coal makes the economic choices - pay the environmentally class action parasites, or build another hydrocarbon plant, which will keep the tithing to Saudi interests coming an economic certainty. Nuclear plants are the future, with China building about eight new commercial power reactors each year for their own use. The West might, if we have anything to sell, be able to buy power from China or its allies. A return to agriculture may be in our futures because without efficient electrical energy production we cannot compete with countries whose electricity costs one fifth to one tenth what it costs us to produce it - not the cost to consumers, “which will necessarily skyrocket.” That was always the plan, and Obama told us all before he was elected.
Not headlights. First time it has been seen. And there are people who watch all the time compressed videos. Not me, but I watch a thread where others view the videos. Headlights should show up on the vertical surfaces brighter then the horizontal surfaces. If it was a light beam source, had to be from a higher elevated viewpoint.
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