Friday, March 9, 2012

L.A. Times: Speculation that “supercritical fission event” occurred at Fukushima reactor irradiating plutonium, says nuclear expert — Explosion so massive investigators found fuel rod fragments a mile away

L.A. Times: Speculation that “supercritical fission event” occurred at Fukushima reactor irradiating plutonium, says nuclear expert — Explosion so massive investigators found fuel rod fragments a mile away

Published: March 9th, 2012 at 2:08 am ET
By ENENews
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Follow-up to: Just-Published Study: Plutonium being found away from Fukushima is from nuclear fuel fragments blown out after explosions
Title: Plutonium near Fukushima plant poses little risk, study says
Source: Los Angeles Times
Author: Amina Khan (Ralph Vartabedian contributed to report)
Date: March 8, 2012
Emphasis Added
[...] In the area around the Fukushima plant, preliminary testing hadn't turned up signs of new plutonium isotopes in the soil. Unlike cesium-137 and other radioactive isotopes, plutonium can't vaporize and travel through the air. But it's possible the force of the hydrogen explosions blew out a little plutonium in the form of particulate matter.
[...] near Fukushima, the researchers found that the ratio of plutonium-241 to plutonium-239 was much higher than expected. They said it was a clear sign that fresh plutonium must have been deposited in the area. [...]
Robert Alvarez, a former senior policy adviser in the U.S. Energy Department
  • "They were irradiating plutonium in Unit 3, which experienced the biggest explosion"
  • The explosion was so massive that investigators found fuel rod fragments a mile away, leading to speculation that a supercritical fission event may have also occurred
  • Much remains unknown one year after the disaster
  • Authorities can't say exactly where breaches occurred in the reactor vessels and spent fuel pools that caused contaminated water to flood the plant's lower levels
Lead author Jian Zheng of the National Institute of Radiological Sciences in Chiba, Japan
The amount of plutonium-241 released from the power plant was about 1/10,000th that from the 1986 Chernobyl accident in Ukraine.
Dale Klein, a former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman
  • "Fukushima was no Chernobyl"
  • [Klein is] co-author of a report on Fukushima for the American Nuclear Society. That report says the long-term health risks of the radioactive fallout probably would be minimal.
Read the report here
More reports of fragments of nuclear fuel on the ground:
Published: March 9th, 2012 at 2:08 am ET
By ENENews
Email Article Email Article
58 comments

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Related Posts

  1. Just-Published Study: Plutonium being found away from Fukushima is from nuclear fuel fragments blown out after explosions March 9, 2012
  2. Report: Nuclear fuel fragments found over a mile away were “ejected from the reactor cores in those explosions” not spent fuel pools, according to NRC (VIDEO) August 18, 2011
  3. Japan Expert: It was a nuclear explosion at Reactor No. 3 — I believe fuel rods were blown out of spent fuel pool December 13, 2011
  4. Mag: Curium and plutonium outside Fukushima plant indicate nuclear explosion at Reactor No. 3 — Broken spent nuclear fuel rods may have been scattered December 17, 2011
  5. Japan Times: It is now a “grave situation” at Fukushima — “Plutonium fission” mentioned for first time — “Criticality is very likely to have occurred” November 3, 2011


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