Fukushima - What They Aren't Saying

Fukushima - What They Aren't Saying
By TC Burnett
5-3-11


"Cold shutdown" means the reactor cores - and the used fuel pools - decrease in temperature through 100 degrees C and continue to go down after a couple of days without additional cooling. If that doesn't happen within 48 hours, it isn't going to. E-V-E-R. The reactors are still 'in service' - which means the fuel is still reacting. It hasn't happened at Fukushima and it never will.
Pouring water on those reactors may keep them from getting worse - but it doesn't make them any better. And it creates the potential of another earthquake dumping millions of gallons of radioactive water all over the Pacific. They can't continue to create highly radioactive water at the rate of 21 cubic meters per hour for 200 years but the minute they stop the fuel goes critical again. There is no way to stop it except burning it up all at once with a few nukes.
So this report, which makes the situation sound less and less serious as the days pass, isn't telling the full story. Part of it simply isn't true. They have been pumping that amount of water every day for months now but they reported 60,000 tonnes on April 11 and the total amount in the facility has officially remained at 'a little less than 70,000 tonnes' ever since. That cannot be unless they are dumping it in the ocean and lying about it.
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html
Did I read that smoke is still coming from two of the reactors? Yep. So the problem still exists in a big way - it's just been relegated to the back page.
Did I read that workers are spraying an 'anti-scattering agent' on the ground to control dust? Yep. For some reason I don't immediately see the formula, so it has to be something simple. It's probably just water-based acrylic polymer paint. Whatever it is, 'anti-scattering agent' is spiffy-sounding name that doesn't mean anything but 'dust control'.
I'm tempted to tell them that if they want to control dust, splashing 'anti-scattering agent' around with a fire hose might not be the best way to do it.