via CommonDreams.org / November 5, 2013 / Preparations to begin the potentially catastrophic decommissioning of the crippled Reactor 4 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant will begin this week with a test run.
The test, which could push back the beginning stages of fuel rod removal by two weeks, includes moving a “protective fuel cask” into and out of the No. 4 storage pool with a crane—before attempts are made to move the spent fuel rods, the Japan Times reports.
Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority gave the final go-ahead last week for TEPCO to begin the decommissioning process, the entirety of which watchdogs say could take decades.
The most dangerous step in the process will include the removal of the 1300 “bent, damaged and embrittled” spent fuel rods from the unstable Unit 4 pool. The fuel rod removal, which has never been done before on this scale, could take up to one year, and has been described by anti-nuclear expert and activist Harvey Wasserman as “humankind’s most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis.”
While the fuel removal at reactor 4 presents possible dangers, there is also urgency to complete the task. Natural disasters such as earthquakes remain a major threat to the stability the damaged building, and should it be damaged further before it is decommissioned, there could be a global catastrophe, many experts have warned.
This week’s practice run comes per the request of the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, a government-affiliated nuclear safety agency.
According to Japan Daily, the agency also urged plant operator TEPCO to have the test evaluated by a group of Japanese and overseas experts recommended by the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, “a Tokyo-based organization founded by Japanese government agencies, nuclear facility manufacturers and electric power companies.”
However, pressure has been mounting on the Japanese Government and TEPCO to allow an international task force made up of nuclear experts, who are independent of the nuclear power industry, to monitor and assist throughout the entirety of the highly hazardous decommissioning process.
This coming Thursday, Moveon.org and affiliated organizations are presenting a petition of over 150,000 signatures to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Barack Obama, asking for global intervention at Fukushima. The campaign, organized by Wasserman, argues TEPCO does not have the capability to safely go it alone.
TEPCO president Naomi Hirose agreed last week to accept the help of the United States Department of Energy with the fuel rod removal process.
Source: Common Dreams
November 8, 2013 at 5:40 pm ·
I believe whats most dangerous would be a jolting earthquake during a critical moment while pulling on a fuel rod or rack. With the amount of earthquakes they have at Fukushima it seems inevitable.
November 11, 2013 at 11:20 pm ·
That might well be the mostly likely cause of damage to the spent fuel – although the pool, the water, the crane hook and the fuel rod will tend to move together in a quake – but it still wouldn’t qualify as “dangerous”. A cracked or broken fuel rod doesn’t represent immediate problems; just some additional cleanup to be done at the end of the move, picking up the pieces.
November 14, 2013 at 11:41 pm ·
Hmm… Do you work for TEPCO or the Japanese govt.? Perhaps you should – you sound just like them.
FYI: http://fairewinds.org/podcast/remove-tepco-removing-fuel
This in not “scare-mongering” – this is FACT. Wise up.
November 15, 2013 at 11:35 pm ·
Well, you believe Uncle Arnie in his two-bit videos, and I’ll believe the science.
November 9, 2013 at 5:27 am ·
no, what is most dangerous beyond this may be the world watching. what better target for even a small upset? I hope air space is being monitored and kept clear of ALL incoming.. (anything)…
November 9, 2013 at 6:30 am ·
There should be an assembly of over one hundred of the worlds top scientists and engineers (nuclear, mechanical, electrical, environmental, etc.) from around the globe converging at Fukushima at this critical moment. These people should have been there years ago.
If there is an accident during the removal process, can we count on TEPCO to come clean and inform the public and not supress crucial information as they have done in the past?
November 10, 2013 at 4:40 am ·
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG47VzPhyaM
As the saying goes “A stitch in time saves nine”
November 12, 2013 at 4:24 pm ·
What will certainly happen if/when the pool contents go critical, as experts have predicted?
Think it through:
all workers will have to immediately abandon the site, then
the other spent fuel pools with five times as many hot rods will begin to burn, then
the whole site will go critical and vast amounts of radiation go into our atmosphere for the jet stream distributes around the northern hemisphere, then
the heavy radiation warning will cause 30 million people to panic and evacuate Tokyo… plus millions more from nearby major cities, then
martial law is declared, and riots break out, then
UN and other nations will rush ships and planes to help Japanese abandon their islands, then
the insane greedy liars who designed the nukes, conned governments to have citizens pay for building defective nuke plants, and nuke owners carelessly manage those plants, will finally be prosecuted and punished, made to forfeit all family assets to pay for the horrific damage and loss of life they have caused, and sentenced to death for the murder of millions, then
mankind will watch millions suffer from leukemia and cancer and monstrous birth defects as in Chernobyl, and within 5 years widespread leukemia and in 15 years a pandemic of hard cancers will overwhelm all Earth hospitals, and society will finally realize that the excessively wealthy are insane with narcissistic personality disorders and take back the wealth the self-proclaimed ‘elite’ families have stolen over the past decades. Then we may commission tested-ethical and tested-technically-capable persons to try to save civilization on our once-beautiful planet. But the gene mutations are generation-permanent.
This is an over-simplification of what we are facing in the very probable (but not certain) failure of the efforts to lower the radiation-poisoning spent fuel stockpiles at Fukushima, from the poison-producing nuclear power plants, of which SFPs there are more than 400 on our planet now, and STILL where is no known safe way to dispose of this lethal, suicidal radiation… while incredibly there are wealthy persons who TODAY are trying to get government to subsidize and build even more of the poison-producing nuclear power plants!! Perhaps the spent fuel rods should be distributed to be stored at the residences of the nuke plant owners. They get the profits, and so are entitled to the problems.
November 12, 2013 at 11:39 pm ·
Nuclear power experts have stated there is effectively no chance of criticality in this process. Experts in fearmongering have attempted to implant a fictional crisis in the public mind, but it bears no relation to reality.
Your daydreaming of ever wilder subsequent consequences is fantasy. Disaster porn I believe is the term.
So, why is there no chance of criticality? Because that’s not how nuclear power plants work. In order to get a reactor to “go critical” and start producing useful amounts of heat, you need a significant amount fuel in a precisely-spaced geometry separated by moderator. Simply waving around a couple of fuel bundles, or making a pile of broken fuel, will NOT provide conditions for even much milder forms of the consequences you are talking about.
Add to that – most of this fuel is “spent”, meaning there is no longer enough fissile material to generate an economic amount heat, and the start-up conditions for even approaching criticality are even more remote.
Your rhetoric on poison simply underlines that you are taking a faith-based position on this, nothing to do with reality.
November 16, 2013 at 9:13 pm ·
Terrence, fortunately what you describe will not occur in our world:
Heavy radiations have already been spreaded over Tokyo months ago with none official consequence.
The true culprits will never be prosecuted and punished, because they own the truth and write the History as they want it to be written. (see 911 for reference)
Carriage return.
November 12, 2013 at 9:40 pm ·
If this wasn’t SO VERY SERIOUS it would be laughable. Clearly something must be done (should have already been done), but this insane plan described by an animation that uses perfectly straight lines and perfect simulation of perfect mechanisms over a perfect spent fuel pool is just ridiculous. Notice that there is little or no mention by TEPCO/Japan that NEVER has anything like this been tried using unaided human remote control (ie: fuel rods are always removed etc using very exact computer controlled/guided cranes). To imagine that everything, every single time – rod by rod – is simply going to work because some bright spark made an animation is beyond crazy. WTF is wrong with these people? For goodness sake: BRING IN THE EXPERTS before – after will be too late.
November 12, 2013 at 11:44 pm ·
Only last year Tepco remove two fuel bundles from this very pool under much less controlled conditions than are set up for the fuel removal coming up. So it is indeed possible.
I expect no major issues in moving all the spent fuel from this pool over the next 12 months, because they have built dedicated equipment and a comprehensive system to safely retrieve all the fuel from unit 4.
November 15, 2013 at 4:13 am ·
Wow – someone even more insane than TEPCO (hard to believe, but clearly true). How about you visit the FAIREWINDS site for the latest update spelling out the real facts about this “fantasy cartoon” and exposing the lies and disinformation propaganda from TEPCO.
Also, tell the whole truth: the x2 fuel bundles removed were “NEW” – a completely different scenario to removing “SPENT” (and damaged) bundles.
I’m not a Nuclear Scientist, but even I can grasp the basics and it’s quite clear that TEPCO does not have the expertise to do this – the implications for disaster/s are compelling – this is not “scare-mongering” – it’s fact. Stick to the facts!