[ RadSafe ] Arnie Gundersen - Another One Who Interviews on Russia Today and Floods the Net

[Tom Simpson]

That's true, but I wouldn't think that this small a volume of air could 
account for a blast of that size unless a large portion of the fuel went 
prompt critical. Could the zirconium cladding on the fuel bundles have 
given it up that spectacularly, thus enhancing the blast we saw? Its an 
interesting puzzle.

-Tom


On 04/28/2011 11:19 AM, Neil, David M wrote:
> Without addressing the plausibility of the scenario initiation - one of the considerations of fuel storage is preventing that, especially with known seismic hazards - the release of energy could plausibly amplify the explosion. Dumping energy into air will heat it enough to produce explosive expansion; you've seen it happen, usually around tall dark clouds in the summer, when you can hear it for miles.
>
> Dave Neil
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at agni.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Tom Simpson
> Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2011 6:43 AM
> To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Arnie Gundersen - Another One Who Interviews on Russia Today and Floods the Net
>
> Arnie Gundersen has been all over the web and the news sharing his
> opinions on just what is going on.
>
> I am not a nuclear engineer, but most of what he says seems plausible
> enough to me.  The actual claim was that a hydrogen gas explosion in
> Unit 3's fuel storage pond banged enough fuel rods into each other to
> initiate a prompt criticality, which resulted in another
> near-simultaneous blast, which made for a much larger event than it
> otherwise would have been.
>
> The question I have of Mr. Gundersens and his assertion is, assuming we
> did have a prompt criticality in part of the fuel stored there, how does
> that result in such a violent explosion? That would get us a lot of heat
> and radiation, for sure, but how does that translate into an explosion
> unless there is some other vector present like water to flash into steam
> (and it does not look much like a steam explosion to me)?
>
> -Tom
>
>
> On 04/28/2011 03:41 AM, Roger Helbig wrote:
>> Does anyone know anything about this claimed nuclear engineer who postulates
>> a criticality incident as causing Reactor #3 explosion at this video link -
>> several other videos from Faire Wind Associates - another new voice in the
>> game - http://vimeo.com/22865967
>>
>> http://www.fairewinds.com/content/who-we-are