BBC : Work at Fukushima Unit 4 A “Distraction;" The “Real Nightmare” Is Coming From 3 Molten Cores

NYTimes: Melted fuel is “all over the place… First goal is simply to stop uncontrolled releases of radioactive material”

ENERGY NEWS
12/07/2013

BBC Tokyo correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, Dec. 6, 2013 (at 2:30 in): 

 

 

They’re doing this work because that’s the easy bit. Reactor 4 was not badly damaged compared to the other reactors. There was no core meltdown, so that is the one that they can sort of get to grips with […] Reactor buildings 1, 2, and 3 where there were core meltdowns, the radiation levels there are still way too high for anyone to go in those buildings. So I think Reactors 1, 2, and 3, the reactors that had core meltdowns, are the real long-term problem, and a very difficult problem to deal with. Reactor 4 is a bit of a distraction. It’s important to get the fuel out, but it is the easy bit. […] the really big headache [is] to keep those melted reactors cool, which they have to do for many years to come. They have to pump water into the damaged reactor cores […] It’s a real nightmare to manage this ever-growing amount of water. >> Full interview with Hayes here.

New York Times reporter Matthew Wald  (at 46:30 in): 

 

The water, about a thousand tons a day, comes through the site and some of it goes into the basements of these ruined reactors, and these basements now have radioactive material in them. […] The water when it reaches the ocean just about meets international standards for drinking water, it’s barely polluted […] but it just looks awful that two and a half years after this accident, you have not contained the radioactive debris. […] [The fuel] is not molten anymore. Of course it’s kind of like candle wax that solidified, but it’s all over the place and getting it out is going to be a challenge. […] little bits of fuel got out on to the space around the vessel into the basement, etc., etc. It’s dangerous, it’s highly radioactive. On the other hand it’s not really in a public place. […] But probably the first goal is simply to stop uncontrolled releases of radioactive material, and they haven’t quite reached that yet. >> Full interview with Wald here.

 

 

A pro-nuclear blogger discussed Wald earlier this year: “Matt Wald of the New York Times recently reviewed a new book on America’s nuclear waste storage saga [...] Aside: Sadly, Matt’s post was one of the last posts ever published on Green, which just announced its demise due to budget constraints. It’s a crying shame; Green provided excellent coverage [...]“

Wald says the Fukushima plant is not a public place, so pieces of nuclear fuel in the cooling water isn’t as big of a deal — and that the leaking water used to cool the fuel is barely polluted. Here is what independent nuclear consultant John Large has said on the matter:

Nuclear Expert: Fukushima melted fuel is drifting in ocean and onto land, lacking any containment -- It ends up on coastline and blows into communities -- People get an exceptional dose -- Health harm will go on for thousands, if not tens of thousands of years (AUDIO)

Nuclear Expert: Melted fuel is exiting Fukushima site -- Very effective way of it being dispersed to humans far away from plant -- Situation is beyond man's control -- 3 or 4 times Chernobyl's radioactivity available for release (AUDIO)

 

Related Articles:

1. Gov’t: Extremely radioactive tunnels at Fukushima must be drained — Contamination is from melted fuel — Nuclear material going through gravel and into ocean? (VIDEO) July 30, 2013
2. BBC: ‘The real dead zone’ at Fukushima — Monitor went off scale, over 180,000 CPM — Experts shook their heads when asked where melted fuel is — Tepco: Don’t ask what we’ll do with Reactors 1, 2, 3 — CNN: Tepco only wanted to show us Reactor 4, strict rules about what we could film (VIDEO) November 8, 2013
3. Fukushima workers “undergoing treatment for radiation exposure” — Tepco: “6 people have been irradiated… big mistakes like this continue to happen again and again… essential that we put something in place to stop this” (VIDEO) October 9, 2013
4. UC Berkeley Nuclear Professor: May be impossible to get Fukushima melted fuel — Work at site to go on for ‘thousands of years’ if not removed (AUDIO) September 3, 2013
5. Pro-Nuclear Expert: Typhoon collapsing Fukushima fuel pool “a very real concern — I don’t know what it is they’re doing about that” (AUDIO) October 10, 2013

Audio/Video Clips, Fukushima Daiichi, Japan (Fukushima) Canadian officials estimated Fukushima cesium-137 release almost double Chernobyl — Based on the “most conservative and credible” projections 

 

Gundersen: When the radioactive plume hits West Coast in a few months “it’s not like it’s going to end” — Fukushima still pumping contamination into Pacific Ocean 1,000 days after disaster began (AUDIO

 

 

 

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Posted in: Fukushima,Fukushima "Mainstream Media" Cover-Up,Fukushima Cover-up,Fukushima U.S. Fallout