[ RadSafe ] Fwd: Zirconium Cladding of Fuel Rods - Reaction With Water to Larry Addis

[Jeff Terry]

Forwarded to the list. 

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

> From: NiagaraNet at aol.com
> Date: March 12, 2011 9:39:56 PM CST
> To: terryj at iit.edu, niagaranet at aol.com
> Subject: Zirconium Cladding of Fuel Rods - Reaction With Water to Larry Addis
> 

> Mr Addis:
>  
> The answer is yes.There would have been more of a release detected, however the fuel bundle itself may not have been melted through at the time of the blast.
>  
> The hydrogen could/would have been generated as the cladding on the exterior of the rods became exposed to the atmosphere inside the reactor (lack of coolant levels) along with the subsequent heat and coming into contact with the "supersteam." The amount of zirconium on the exterior of the rod bundles would have been sufficient to generate and provide enough hydrogen that it was needed to be released/vented inside the main containment building, but outside the reactor, for safety pressure purposes of the primary vessel. Once "available" for ignition within the building, all there needed to be was any spark of even static type voltage/amperage: then kaboom. There goes the first level of containment from the outside environs. The building itself would have been designed to act in this fashion as a measure of safety.
>  
> ==
> Louis Ricciuti
> Niagara Falls - Lewiston - Porter, New York,
> * "Los Alamos East"
> -
> * The free world's largest ore-to-metal uranium production center.
> See: "Sites and Contractors - Appendix A"
> "Electro Metallurgical Company (Niagara Falls, New York), a subsidiary of Union Carbide, was the MED's largest ore-to-metal uranium production plant. From 1942 to 1953, the plant processed uranium tetrafluoride (green salt) into uranium metal. The plant was also called the Union Carbide and Chemical Electro-Metallurgical Division Works."
> http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/new/findingaids/epidemiologic/orise/app.html,
> United States Department of Energy - Office of Health, Safety and Security,
> Office of Human Radiation Experiments, 
> Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.