Tepco reveals 35 ton machine fell into Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 high-level radioactive waste storage pool

Kyodo News has reported that a camera lowered into the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 high-level radioactive waste storage pool has revealed that a 35 ton piece of equipment used to transfer irradiated nuclear fuel into and out of the pool fell in, most likely due to the massive hydrogren explosion which rubblized the reactor building in the earliest days of the catastrophe in mid March 2011.

"Heavy load drops" can punch holes in the sides or floors of pools, draining the cooling water away and causing a high-level radioactive waste fire. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2005, Robert Alvarez et al. in 2003, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2001, and Brookhaven National Lab in 1997 have long warned about such risks. The NRC study reported that 25,000 people could die of latent cancer fatalities up to 500 miles downwind of a pool fire. The Brookhaven study warned of the potential for 143,000 deaths.

No explanation is given for why it has taken Tepco 13 months to reveal this information. There is growing concern about the Unit 4 pool collapsing, but as this article shows, Unit 3 is also at risk -- there is a lack of even basic information about its status, condition, and structural integrity.

"Fighting the Legacy of Enrico Fermi"

NRC file photo of Fermi 2Michael Leonardi of Occupy Toledo has published an essay in Counterpunch, re-run at Ecowatch, about the resistance to the Fermi nuclear power plant on the Lake Erie shoreline near Monroe, MI. Leonardi links to Beyond Nuclear's involvement in "Freeze Our Fukushimas" efforts to shutdown Fermi 2 (see photo, left), the largest Fukushima Daiichi twin GE Mark I reactor in the world, with around 550 tons of high-level radioactive waste stuck in its storage pool, more than Fukushima Daiichi Units 1 to 4 put together.

Leonardi also mentions the struggle to nip the proposed new "Fermi 3" reactor, a GE-Hitachi "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor" (ESBWR), in the bud. Beyond Nuclear's website hosts the compiled submissions by the the environmental coalition resisting Fermi 3, submitted in response to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Draft Environmental Impact Statement. Beyond Nuclear, along with Citizens for Alternatives to Chemical Contamination, Citizens Environment Alliance of Southwestern Ontario, Don't Waste Michigan, and the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter -- represented by Toledo attorney Terry Lodge -- continue to officially intervene against Fermi 3 in the NRC's Atomic Safety (sic) and Licensing Board proceeding.

Lack of permission for dry cask storage of high-level radioactive waste generated after March 21st may be Vermont Yankee's last gasp

A typical dry cask storage installation, with its "state of the art" security system (aka a chain link fence)Citizens Awareness Network (CAN) has posted an analysis on its website ("The Worm Turns") on how Entergy Nuclear may have planted the seed of its own destruction when it filed a lawsuit against the State of Vermont, seeking to block Vermont's efforts to shut down Vermont Yankee (VY) atomic reactor at the end of its 40 year license on March 21, 2012.

The federal district judge in Brattleboro did rule that the State of Vermont's legislature cannot intervene agaisnt VY's operations, a ruling that Vermont has appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City. But the district court ruling did not bar the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) from denying a Certificate of Public Good (CPG), which would also shut down the reactor. This has suddenly thrown Entergy Nuclear into a panic. It has "cross appealed" Vermont's filing with the 2nd Circuit, and incredibly, it has moved that the district judge "correct mistakes" in his January ruling -- namely, allowing the PSB to retain its authority to grant or deny a CPG, as it sees fit!

Specificially, the PSB must approve the dry cask storage of any irradiated nuclear fuel on the banks of the Connecticut River at VY. The PSB has asked some tough questions to Entergy about its plans -- or lack thereof -- for dry cask storage of irradiated nuclear fuel generated after March 21, 2012. Could this be the way that VY is finally forced to shut down, the desire of the vast majority of Vermont residents? Let's hope so. Ironically, the PSB will hear the parties on Friday, March 9th, in the very same building where Vermont's Act 160 was passed in the first place, the Vermont State House.

Cooling lost to Palisades' high-level radioactive waste storage pool during incident

In its Feb. 14, 2012 final significance determination letter to Entergy Nuclear about a Sept. 25, 2011 loss of power to the control room at the Palisades atomic reactor in southwest Michigan, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that not until 6 p.m., "Cooling was restored to spent fuel pool heat exchanger (lost during loss of power). The pool temperature was 83.4 [degrees] F at 15:00 [3 p.m.] and had risen to 87.4 [degrees] F by the time the heat exchanger was restored."

Although Palisades has had dry cask storage since 1993, the vast majority of its high-level radioactive waste is still stored in its indoor pool. Loss of pool cooling for long enough would lead to boiling, and eventual exposure of irradiated fuel to air. After a short time without water cooling, irradiated nuclear fuel will ignite, and the fire could spread to the entire pool inventory. Up to 100% of the hazardous radioactive Cesium-137 contained in the irradidated nuclear fuel could be released into the environment. An NRC commissioned study in 2001 reported that 25,000 latent cancer fatalities could result from a pool fire. An NRC commissioned study in 1997 reported even more shocking figures: 143,000 latent cancer fatalities downwind of a pool fire.

Major seismic aftershock at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 could unleash 8 times Chernobyl's Cs-137

Recent photo of the ruins of Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4. Note workers, wearing white protective suits, near the pool's surface (just beneath the topmost girders).Robert Alvarez of the Institute for Policy Studies released the following message today:

"Here is a recent photo [left] of the Unit No. 4 at the Fukushima-Daichi nuclear ruins provided by Akio Matsumura. It is quite sobering.

The pool at Unit No. 4 contains 1,538 fuel assemblies, including a full core that was freshly discharged prior to the accident. 

Based on data from the U.S. Department of Energy, a spent fuel assembly from a typical boiling water reactor contains about 30,181 curies (~1.1E+12 becquerels) of long-lived radioactivity. So the Unit No. 4 pool contains roughly 49 million curies (~1.8E+18 Bq), of which about 40 percent is Cs-137.  (Source:  U.S. Department of Energy, Final Environmental Impact Statement for a Geologic Repository for the Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste at Yucca Mountain, Nye County, Nevada, 2002, Appendix A, Tables A-7, A-8, A-9, A-10, BWR/Burn up = 36,600 MWd/MTHM, enrichment = 3.03 percent, decay time = 23 years.)

The risk of yet another highly destructive earthquake occurring even closer to the Fukushima reactors has increased, according to the European Geosciences Union.http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2012/02/15/could-fukushima-daiichi-be-ground-zero-for-the-next-big-one/ This is particularly worrisome for Daiichi's structurally damaged spent fuel pool at Reactor No. 4 sitting 100 feet above ground, exposed to the elements. Drainage of water from this pool, resulting from another quake could trigger a catastrophic radiological fire involving about eight times more radioactive cesium than released at Chernobyl."

In 2011, Alvarez published a report on the risks of high-level radioactive waste pool storage in the U.S., in light of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Catastrophe.