Gundersen: Unit 4 pool can turn into a nuclear reactor as they pull rods up — Bloomberg: Like a “self-sustained chain reaction similar to meltdowns” (*Note from RC: Im not sure what this would look like, but Ive had a few nightmares about it. If you are close by, it would be the LAST thing you see, thats for sure) Fairewinds chief engineer Arnie Gundersen interviewed by Prof. Harvey Wasserman, Nov. 18, 2013 (at 22:00 in): The boron between the nuclear fuel has disintegrated. It was never designed for the temperatures it’s seen and it was never designed for saltwater. So there’s no assurance that you’ve got boron neutron absorbers between the nuclear fuel rods. So you’ve got what we call an inadvertent criticality — you’ve got the chance of the nuclear fuel pool becoming a nuclear reactor when it didn’t want to be, as they pull these rods out. So they have to be extraordinarily careful that they dont snap a rod and extraordinarily careful that as they’re pulling these rods, that the dont get an inadvertent criticality. Bloomberg, Nov. 18, 2013: Were the rods [in the Unit 4 pool] to break or overheat, it could prompt a self-sustained nuclear chain reaction similar to the meltdowns at three Fukushima reactors. enenews/gundersen-unit-4-pool-can-turn-into-a-nuclear-reactor-as-they-pull-rods-up-bloomberg-like-a-self-sustained-chain-reaction-similar-to-meltdowns-nhk-fuel-is-1-plutonium-video
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 04:18:57 +0000