Monday, July 30, 2012

Fukushima’s Melted Reactors 500 Days On

The ongoing nuclear emergency continues to surpass Worst Case Scenarios.  Just what we need:  A relentless, overachieving catastrophe.  Veterans Today.  Excerpts:

Dr. Paolo Scampa, PhD, a well-known physicist in the European Union, has prepared a radioactive inventory of Fukushima Daiichi’s destroyed nuclear power plants 500 days after the meltdown of three disemboweled, mangled reactors.



The violent extinction level event occurred Mar 11, 2011. The deadly meltdown and dispersion of radioactive fuel throughout the world is on-going to this day.


Because of the nature of long-lived and short-lived radioactivity, this summation of the radioactive Fukushima inventory is valid for many years. Dr. Scampa’s inventory is current as of Friday, June 29, 2012.


There are 1,946 radioactive products produced by nuclear weapons and atomic reactors according to the Oak Ridge Nuclear Weapons Lab in America.


Fifty-five are considered to be long-lived; 898 are considered to be short-lived but last more than eight days. These nine hundred fifty-three radioactive isotopes are included in this analysis.


Nine hundred ninety-three (993) radioactive isotopes are considered dangerous and undergo radioactive decay within eight days; they are not included in this analysis.

Scampa's analysis is dry, and yet, terrifying.  Here ya go..

The three melted reactors combined in Fukushima Daichi contained 257 tons of nuclear fuel enriched to 3.7% Uranium 235 and divided into 1,496 assemblies, each about 172 kg.



Reactor No. 3 also housed 32 MOX assemblies, reportedly enriched to 6% or 330 kg of Pu239.


In addition, the storage pools of these reactors have at least 239 tonnes of fuel residing there for who knows how long (1,390 assemblies) and 31 tonnes of fresh fuel (180 assemblies).
..
The day of the earthquake their fuel was consumed according to the article cited at an average of 23.35 GWd/t at a rate of 24.07 kg/t for a total of 6.186 tonnes of fuel fissioned.

..
Overall, 9 tonnes of fuel was subjected to atomic fission or activation transformation occasioning a prodigious explosion of radioactivity and radiotoxicity which over time, is several times the amount needed to kill by internal contamination the whole human race.

..
The most remarkable of the volatile elements (elements of which the boiling point is inferior to 1,500 degrees Centigrade and escape above all the first coriums). 37,921 PBq; 1 billion Ci; 18 billion potential inhaled lethal doses.



The official report of the Japanese government to the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Association] contains a hypothesis that the emanations of nuclear fuel from Fukushima Daiichi are equivalent to the ones observed at Chernobyl.


We can see by comparing the subsets of figures below that the radioactive particle emission through the air from Fukushima is not only 3.7 times higher than Chernobyl; but, more importantly, 28.3 times more radiotoxic with every breath you take.


So we got that goin' for us; which is nice..  I still can't believe no one talks about Fukushima.  The level of global denial is..  Beyond words.

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