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Global help urged to avert reactor 4 pool fire U.S. expert appalled by Tepco's attitude over 'sleeping dragon' risk
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Original Message
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KYOTO — The risk of a fire starting in reactor 4's spent-fuel pool at the Fukushima No. 1 plant continues to alarm scientists and government officials around the world, prompting a leading U.S. nuclear expert to urge Japan to tap global expertise to avert a catastrophe.
Goal number 1 on that site is to get that pool empty. And it will take, once the building is built, it will take a year or two, so they are not out of the woods by any means because if there were a seismic event and the pool were to drain, it could still have a fuel pool fire and contaminate the entire country. So it is improving because they are in the process. You know Helen, they finally figured this out this year.
Yes, and the last fuel they move is the most radioactive, which is still the most dangerous. So removing the fuel at the beginning is actually the easy part. The last fuel is the newest fuel and is physically hot and of course has the most radiation so that fuel will be the last stuff they move in perhaps 2014 or 2015.
Well if it has got 7,000 bundles now and each bundle weighs a ton, there are 7,000 tons of spent fuel in that common fuel pool.
And then each reactor II, reactor I, reactor III, all have 500-600 bundles, so there is, if you do the math, there is 600 tons of material in each of those reactors. There is a huge amount of nuclear waste. There is 40 years of nuclear waste on that site. Plus what is already in the dry cask storage. They have a dry cask facility on site too. And that survived the tsunami and the earthquake just fine. So the goal here is to get it all into dry cask over the next 10 years.
Audio ..
[link to www.fairewinds.com]
[link to www.japantimes.co.jp]
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