15,972 used nuclear fuel rods are exposed.
On 25th of May they found a swelling spot in a building, which shows the possibility of collapse.
Recent visit of Environment Minister Hosono.
'Prepare your coffin, you are to die'
Japan's novelist Ryunosuke Akutagawa claimed he found this verse in John's Apocalypse.
I found no verse related to this, some metaphor might have suggested though.
They don't wrap the old fuel rods in ceramics/steel? We have a fairly large collection of wastes about 60k from our home. Ours are in a pool of water then cement while they cool down, so odd to see one near the roof. Is that thing the raw rod or is it sealed up?
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the circle, btw!
They have been eager to move to a safe place outside, but the operation follows great risk of radiation exposure. Radiation at the spot is immediate death level.
ReplyDeleteI think they are sealed up, but some of them might be raw because of the destruction we see.
I appreciate American friends read my blog. I hope my post will be the hint to future problem in the world.
BWR fuel rods are made of uranium oxide pellets in a Zircalloy tube.
ReplyDeleteFresh spent fuel rods are held in water until the decay heat output has decreased enough that they will not overheat if they are air-cooled. At that point they can be transferred to dry casks. These fuel rods can easily stand temperatures of 300°C in water, but unless they are in a pressurized container water does not remain liquid at such temperatures. A sealed steel tube containing fresh spent fuel in water could be air-cooled; it would require remote handling because it would not have enough radiation shielding to stop gammas, but it would be safe against coolant loss. The purpose of most of the water in the spent-fuel cooling pools is not cooling, but to attenuate the gamma emissions so that it's safe for unprotected people to work up on the top.
they do wrap old fuel rods, but not if they are still in the process of cooling. Remember, those suckers stay hot for MONTHS, even after graphite has been introduced to stop the mass propogating reactions. Internally, the byproducts of fission are still themselves reacting. So they store the rods in the pool for months to allow them to cool. Also the pools are used as fuel storage. So new fuel could be in the pool as well.
ReplyDeleteIn the pools, they are kept far enough apart that graphite rods are not needed to stop the reactions. But what happens when all the water drains out, and hte support structures holding the rods up are broken so thath te rods can fall into a jumble at the bottom? Fission. And that is likely also to blame for some of hte problems.
soooo how about liquuid salt Thorium eh? I sure hope this provides the research catalyst needed to get things moving on that design.
ReplyDeleteGraphite's a moderator. You mean boron or cadmium, which are poisons.
ReplyDeletethe byproducts of fission are still themselves reacting."Decaying" is not the same as "reacting".
http://flibe-energy.com/
ReplyDeletetrue. that was what I was trying to get at.
ReplyDeleteIt is the real Aquascutum.
ReplyDeleteThey need water to cool down, and water is contaminated too. They keep on storing contaminated water in and beside the site, manage to maintain the site anyway.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that the water is decontaminated by ion exchange, capturing the radioactive leakage in solid form for encapsulation and disposal. There is a large plant at the Dai'ichi site to perform this function; a lot of water is being captured, decontaminated and recycled to keep things cool.
ReplyDelete