PARIS, MAR 4:
The head of French nuclear group Areva, a major supplier to Japan, said today six reactors would reopen in the country before the end of the year and that most of the countrys nuclear plants would eventually be put back on line.
According to an article Fukushima could spew out more than 15,000 times as much radiation as the Hiroshima bombing.
"We are now within two months of what may be humankind's most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis.
"There is no excuse for not acting. All the resources our species can muster must be focussed on the fuel pool at Fukushima Unit 4.
"Fukushima's owner, Tokyo Electric (Tepco), says that within as few as 60 days it may begin trying to remove more than 1300 spent fuel rods from a badly damaged pool perched 100 feet in the air. The pool rests on a badly damaged building that is tilting, sinking and could easily come down in the next earthquake, if not on its own.
"Some 400 tons of fuel in that pool could spew out more than 15,000 times as much radiation as was released at Hiroshima.
"The one thing certain about this crisis is that Tepco does not have the scientific, engineering or financial resources to handle it. Nor does the Japanese government. The situation demands a coordinated worldwide effort of the best scientists and engineers our species can muster."
Meanwhile the Tories (and Labour) are figuring out how much money to give to EDF so they can build nuclear power stations in the UK, despite the fact that EDF have been ripping people off over electricity for years.
It's a sick world.
Jack
The SFP of reactors 1-4 are not just very radioactive, they are very unstable. Physically you have to accept the integrity of the concrete steel and water. Even if you withdraw a rod safely, there is no stopping it's movement to a safe place - no plan B. It needs remote crane lifting to another pool. If it is out of water it will catch fire after a time. These rods are seperated by a rack with neutron soaking spacers. If it collapses in the wrong way, then neutron producing elements pushed together would cause the worst outcome:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident#Incidents
If there was a continuous excursion in a fuel pool, the radiation level could be too great for anyone to approach. If rods are trapped in close proximity with no boron moderator the energy output can climb x 1000 in milliseconds eg SL1 accident x 6000 maximum in 4 miliseconds. The worst that could happen is the plant is evacuated and 5 pools and 6 reactors are abandoned.
The radioactive isotopes are not found on earth because they have all decayed previously, only man made sources of cesium 137 and 134. If my tuna had 3% more cesium and it was all 134 or 137 I would have a big problem - a bit like these guys:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/09/japan-fukushima-tepco-idUSL4N0HZ0ZD20131009