How Much Spent Nuclear Fuel Is At the Fukushima Daiichi Reactors? (647+ tons Scientific American)

[jpak]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=nuclear-fuel-fukushima

<snip>

The spent fuel pools are of significant concern, Marvin Resnikoff, a radioactive waste management consultant, said in a Wednesday press briefing organized by the nonprofit organization Physicians for Social Responsibility. Resnikoff noted that the fuel pools are thought to have contained the following amounts of fuel, according to The Mainichi Daily News:

• Reactor No. 1 fuel pool: 50 tons of nuclear fuel
• Reactor No. 2 fuel pool: 81 tons
• Reactor No. 3 fuel pool: 88 tons
• Reactor No. 4 fuel pool: 135 tons
• Reactor No. 5 fuel pool: 142 tons
• Reactor No. 6 fuel pool: 151 tons
• Also, a separate facility fuel pool on ground level contains 1,097 tons of nuclear fuel; and some 70 tons of nuclear materials are kept on the grounds in dry storage.

The reactor cores themselves contain less than 100 tons of fuel, Resnikoff noted.

The fuel had been moved from Reactor No. 4's core to its spent fuel pool recently, so "that fuel is relatively fresh and hotter, thermally," Resnikoff explained. "So it's not surprising that when the water no longer circulating that the water was actually boiled off in a zirconium exothermic reaction, that the zirconium burned" (which occurs at about 1,800 degrees C).

<more>

Hundreds of millions of curies of radioactivity

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Let me reiterate to the engineers, logisticians, and bean counters out there,

fuel farms at airports where one tank goes, they all go, propane tank farms where one goes they all go, chlorine storage tanks on top of one another where one gets damaged they all get damaged, and most certainly keeping this much radioactive stuff all in one place.... priceless. You guys get the Duzy award from me personally.

[99th_Monkey]

2. As compared to a total of 180 tons at Chernobyl? yikes!! nt

[Tx4obama]

3. Some of the numbers in the OP are lower than what Rachel showed last night

Rachel Maddow - amount of Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods in the pools at Dai-ichi
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x666399

Maddow video with graphics: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#42121003

[Tx4obama]

4. More info regarding the spent rods

Physicist Michio Kaku warns that Japan nukes may go 'beyond Chernobyl'
Article and Video: http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/physicist-michio-kaku-warns-japan-nu

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. See also: msnbc.com video: Kaku: 'Like squirt guns against a forest fire'

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=280090&mesg_id=280090

[Tx4obama]

6. That quote and a video is also on the link I posted. n/t

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Yes, I read the page

To the best of my knowledge, this video was not among them.