Fuel Pool 4 - Species Assured Destruction SAD On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 11:38 PM,
A friend of mine sent me an e-mail last night. The message began, "Please don't shoot the messenger! She quoted an article where this statement was made by Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy. Mr. Alvarez was discussing the precarious condition of the Fukushima Daichi spent fuel pool at Reactor #4, and the serious threat to human existence which would result from its collapse. (See article link below for a full discussion of the scenario.)
According to Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, if the spent fuel pool #4 at Fukushima Daichi falls from its precarious perch, it the result could be the end of civilization as we know it. Mr. Alvarez was quoted as saying,
"Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137 than the Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival."
My friend went on to say, "Every human being and some institutions on my e-mail list is getting a copy of this e-mail. This is just too important for you not to know about.
The time for obfuscation is past, and for failing to take meaningful action. The situation at Fukushima Daichi could become so dire it may mean the end of life as we know it. International cooperation is needed to prevent the collapse of SPF #4. Reactor 2 has little or no water in it, and it appears its spent fuel pool is also presently at risk. Three reactors have already melted through their containment vessels at Fukushima Daichi. Ex-vessel corium is also known as the 'China syndrome.'
Someone has to begin telling the truth to the general public. I simply refuse to keep silent about it to placate anyone, any longer. Documents recently released under FOIA show the NRC was from the beginning complicit in hiding the truth from the public. An NRC spokesperson stated they (the NRC) didn't want 'the media to get ahold of this story' or to know the potential 'consequences.' The article cited below contained information obtained under FOIA. An NRC official was quoted as saying like "tell them to just stop it" and have the DoE tell independent labs to quit testing for Fukushima, radiation. See the original statement here:
http://enenews.com/nrc-weve-stop-labs-testing-fukushima-radiation-directors-knock-doe-cool-worried-about-talking-press-about-consequences
Here are some quotations from the article and video where Akio Matsumura interviewed Robert Alvarez fand Akio. The dire warning about the consequences of the collapse of Fukushima spent fuel pool #4 appeared here:
http://akiomatsumura.com/2012/04/682.html And see this: http://www.prisonplanet.com/fukushima-reactor-4-life-on-planet-earth-in-the-balance.html
Akio Matsumura's opening statement in his interview with Robert Alvarez:
"I asked top spent-fuel pools expert Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, for an explanation of the potential impact of the 11,421 rods.
I received an astounding response from Mr. Alvarez [updated 4/5/12]:
' In recent times, more information about the spent fuel situation at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site has become known. It is my understanding that of the 1,532 spent fuel assemblies in reactor No. 304 assemblies are fresh and unirradiated. This then leaves 1,231 irradiated spent fuel rods in pool No. 4, which contain roughly 37 million curies (~1.4E+18 Becquerel) of long-lived radioactivity. The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.
The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors .... the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters. Despite the enormous destruction cased at the Da–Ichi site, dry casks holding a smaller amount of spent fuel appear to be unscathed. '
Mr. Alvarez went on to say in the interview, based on DoE assumptions, 'a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident.' Mr. Alvarez stated the estimate was based on the assessment of the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). The Fukushima site fuel inventory, he said, contains, 'roughly half the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel). '
The article also quoted Alvarez as saying, ' It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.
Many of our readers might find it difficult to appreciate the actual meaning of the figure, yet we can grasp what 85 times more Cesium-137 than the Chernobyl would mean. It would destroy the world environment and our civilization. This is not rocket science, nor does it connect to the pugilistic debate over nuclear power plants. This is an issue of human survival.' "
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Mary LoganApril 7, 2012 4:37 PM