Japan nuclear crisis could last for weeks, U.S. nuclear official says (NRC Chairman)

[jpak]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-japan-quake-nrc-20110318,0,2353640.story

The nuclear crisis in Japan could last for weeks, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday.

Still, officials are not concerned about harmful radiation levels coming to the United States.

The main challenge at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is getting more water to cool the stricken nuclear reactors and spent-fuel pool. When no cooling occurs, it is possible for dangerous levels of radiation to be emitted.

"This is something that will likely take some time to work through, possibly weeks, as eventually you remove the majority of the heat from the reactors and the spent-fuel pools. It's something that will be ongoing for some time," said Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is an independent agency that regulates U.S. commercial nuclear power plants.

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[Scuba]

1. Looks more like 10,000 years to me. n/t

[Marblehead]

2. nuke volcano

oil geyser, what's next?

[ReturnoftheDjedi]

3. it took 9-10 months to build the Sarcophagus at Chernobyl

They have to build 6 of them here.

[Tx4obama]

4. By the end of a couple of weeks the 11,195 spent fuel rod assemblies will have all burst into flames

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=673762&mesg_id=674037

[DeeJay]

5. Technically that's probably true. Thousands and thousands of weeks.

Just a whole lot of them.

[godai]

6. He implied that it would be 'under control' at that time.

"getting the situation under control at the Fukushima Daiichi complex 'will likely take some time ... possibly weeks."