The Fukushima Clean Up

until this job is completed

I think the bird flu is gonna be the least of our worries

We’re In The Most Dangerous Moment Since the Cuban Missile Crisis

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/11/were-in-the-most-dangerous-moment-since-the-cuban-missile-crisis.html

"

The success of the cleanup also has global significance. So we all have a direct interest in seeing that the next steps are taken well, efficiently and safely."

***** happens from time to time

I hope this link works, "The 1938 New England hurricane triggered a storm surge as high as 25 to 30 feet, considerably higher than waves generated this week by Sandy. A wave that tall would easily overtake many nuclear plants on the East Coast, which on average lie about 20 feet above sea level, with minimal sea wall protection."http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2012/11/sandy-fukushima-and-the-nuclear-industry.html

Hi Satori,

This post isn't to try to big myself up or give it the big 'I am', however I was in the Royal Navy for a long time and one of the jobs I did while serving was to act as a team leader of a Health Physics team in Devonport Dockyard working on Submarine Pressurised water reactors.

The role my team performed was to take over all aspects of radiological safety when a submarine came into the port and any maintenance was carried out. The work itself would be carried out either by dockyard services or by the submarines ships company, we were the guys controlling access to the reactor space and monitoring anyone or anything that came out of the 'pot' for contamination. My boss was an actual Navy Medical Doctor and I had a Medical Assistant in my team who's role was to perform any lab work required should contamination be discovered.

What all that really meant was even though my proper job was as a RADAR mechanic, I had a two year period where I spent my working life in and around Sub reactors and the people/medical staff who routinely deal with Nuclear technology, plus the Navy sent me on a ton of training courses. As you can guess, it was not difficult to learn a lot in that time.

Here is some thing I picked up during that period that may be of interest to you or anyone interested in Fukushima.

Regarding MOX fuel. I don't know if you are aware of this, but a reactor can be used to either generate power, or generate fuel. The terms typically used are 'feed' or 'breed' A Feeder does what its name suggests it consumes fuel to produce power. A breeder however uses the neutron soak of an active pile to make plutonium out of uranium. In a mox fuel reactor, what defines if the pile feeds or breeds is the ratio of mox rod assembly's that have been doped with Americium during manufacture to those that are not. The more doped rods are present, the more the reactor breeds.

If you look carefully at almost all the sample reports taken from the Fukushima area, you will see that they all contain high, or unusually high levels of Americium...

To me this begs the question, what was Number 3 reactor at Fukushima being used for, was it to generate power, or to make more fuel?

If you take the first speculation, was number 3 being used to breed, its worth seeing if there is any supporting evidence and one question about Fuku has always bothered me.

Why were the Japanese storing so much spent fuel onsite at that facility?

When you look at the amount of spent fuel rods in all the reactor buildings spent fuel pools, the numbers just don't make sense. Combine that with the fact there is a shared fuel pool onsite which holds as much as all the buildings combined and then some, and you arrive at a picture that only makes sense if Number 3 Reactor was being used to Breed and the spent fuel stored at the site was destined to be put into mixed piles with the mox fuel for the purpose of making a lot of Plutonium.

If you discard that idea, then your left with the question why was there so much spent fuel and not a lot makes any sense.

The problem is if you accept the idea that TEPCO was manufacturing plutonium through number 3 while other reactors there generated power, you are then left with two very disturbing questions..

1) How much plutonium exactly was in the pile at number 3 reactor? (as you know plutonium is the most lethal substance known to man)

2) Where is that Plutonium now?

I know the whole Fukushima nightmare is very serious, but of all the problems its caused, my own belief is that what I have outlined above is the most serious and pressing in terms of human health over the longer term but I would guess the situation with the number 4 fuel pool is definitely critical as well though in more of a tactical sense.

Food for thought.

Utwig.