Flashback:
Fukushima reactor No. 4 SFP contains something on the order of 400.000 kg of hot plutonium.
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They say that one microgram of plutonium could theoretically kill a person.
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There are billion micrograms in a kilogram and there are 400.000 hot kilograms in this pool.
Do the math.
If those fuel rods are catching fire … it’s ALL OVER.
– Kyodo: Alarm sounds at Fukushima plant, Unit 4 cooling system stops (VIDEO) (ENENews, Feb 24, 2014):
NHK, Feb. 24, 2014 at 9:39p ET: Fukushima No.4 reactor pool’s cooling fan halts — The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant says a cooling fan for the spent fuel pool at the No. 4 reactor has stopped working. [Tepco] announced on Tuesday that a warning alarm for an electrical problem went off […] it will switch to the second one and cooling should resume by around 1 PM. […] a nearby electrical cable may have been damaged in excavation work.
Kyodo News, Feb. 25, 2014: (Translation) Spent fuel cooling system stops at Fukushima No. 4 reactor — Fukushima 4 reactor spent fuel pool cooling stops, the leakage warning sounded in the nuclear power facility.
Tepco, Feb. 25, 2014: (Translation) Cooling systems at Fukushima Unit 4 spent fuel pool now offline […] around 9:00 am, in road excavation between the Process Main Building and incineration building, hurt the cable […] no abnormality in the voltage value of the power plant, and has continued the supply of power […]
Watch the NHK broadcast here (Japanese only)
And with every passing day we seem to move closer to the ultimate disaster …
– Nuclear Experts: Fukushima Reactor No. 4 Spent Fuel Pool Shows Signs Of Collapsing
– Fukushima Reactor No. 4 SFP: Damaged Fuel Rods Cracked And Leaking Radioactive Gases
– Fukushima Reactor No. 4 SFP Fuel Rods Deformed, One ‘Bent At 90-Degree Angle’
– Fukushima Reactor No. 4 ‘Buckled And Tilted And Could Collapse If Another Quake Strikes’ (Reuters)
… and here is more info about what will happen if reactor no. 4 SFP collapses:
– Big Earthquake Near Fukushima Would ‘Decimate Japan, Lead To US West Coast Evacuation’
– Japan’s Top Nuclear Official: I Am ‘Much More Worried” About Fukushima Reactor No. 4 Fuel Rods#
– Fukushima: While No One Is Watching Humanity Faces The Most Dangerous Situation Ever
The leakage of water from these cores is bad enough but the most dangerous thing is the cooling pool of unit 4. Now it is terribly dangerous because the entire hot core of reactor 4 had been removed and put in this cooling pool shortly before the tsunami. So, there was a hot core in this cooling pool the entire superstructure building was blown off in a hydrogen explosion.
The entire area is weakened and there is a great risk of an aftershock. Now this pool contains something on the order of 400.000 kg of hot plutonium. So, the thing that people should be aware of is that TEPCO is going to begin attempting to remove these rods from this pool to some other type of storage. This has never been done with plutonium rods that have been out of a core for such a short period of time.
There is a great danger of a thermonuclear reaction if these rods become exposed to the air and the cooling pool itself is just barely containing the temperature levels of the core as it is.
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The media coverage of the situation has been almost non-existent. The public must become engaged and the governments must become engaged because this is a global threat. They say that one microgram of plutonium could theoretically kill a person.
There are billion micrograms in a kilogram and there are 400.000 hot kilograms in this pool. So, if these rods combust, if the set of rods begins a thermonuclear reaction, it will vaporize the water in the pool and the entire pool can become an uncontrolled nuclear reaction open to the air. These particles will be spread through the northern hemisphere.
This is perhaps the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. And I think you would acknowledge there has been far too little attention given to this at this point and the measures that the Japanese government is discussing at this point are not sufficient, I believe. Other governments must become engaged in this.
– Fukushima Is Falling Apart: Are You Ready … For A Mass Extinction Event?:
If they are MOX fuel, containing 6% plutonium, one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people. If this pool collapses, as Senator Wyden is now saying too, we would face a mass extinction event from the release of radiation in those rods.
That is, if we aren’t in one already. Nuke experts like Arnie Gundersen and Helen Caldicott are prepared to evacuate their families to the southern hemisphere if that happens. It is that serious.
So now you know, if you didn’t before. We are in big trouble.
Before the Committee, Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4 – with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground – collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4.
In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel. Indeed, they are open to the air, which is quite dangerous.
This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced.
He stressed that the responsibility of Japan to the rest of the world is immeasurable. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries.
Ambassador Murata informed us that the total number of the spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site excluding the rods in the pressure vessel is 11,421 (396+615+566+1,535+994+940+6375).
– Arnie Gunderson: More Cesium In Reactor 4 SFP Than All Nukes Ever Exploded
– Fukushima Reactor No. 4 Meltdown?
– Dr. Helen Caldicott (Co-Founder Of Physicians For Social Responsibility): What We Learned From Fukushima (Video – April 2, 2012):
Dr. Helen Caldicott: If Spent Fuel Pool No. 4 collapses I am evacuating my family from Boston.
– Worst Case Scenario: Where To Go When Reactor No. 4 SFP Falls On The Ground?:
‘Dr. Arnie Gundersen warns they need to go further than 450km.’
– Confirmed: Fukushima Reactor No. 4 Is Falling Apart, Wall Was Lost On The South Side (Video, Photos)
– TEPCO: Fukushima Reactor No. 4 ‘Air Duct’ Explosion On 4th Floor
Arnie Gundersen: “… It could have cut Japan in half. But now the winds have turned, so they are heading to the south toward Tokyo and now my concern and my advice to friends that if there is a severe aftershock and the Unit 4 building collapses, leave. We are well beyond where any science has ever gone at that point and nuclear fuel lying on the ground and getting hot is not a condition that anyone has ever analyzed.”