[ RadSafe ] water cannon? New water will RAISE temperature.

[Lemieux, Bryan P]

Well, we can hope that the rods are still secured in the spent fuel pool and are not able to achieve a critical geometry. Also we have no info on how hot the rods might be since temp data was lost post explosion near unit 4 spent fuel pool. Nrc and japanese disagree about water level. Explanation I saw indicated thay japanese authorities believe there is still some water in the pool because the dose rates at the plant dropped from the high point indicating that the rods are still at least somewhat shielded.

Just passing on what I have been able to glean from nhk. Thier coverage, diagrams, scale models, experts, etc...appear to be very comprehensive.

All we can really do now is hope for the best and trust that they know what they are doing.

For those who have not heard, there is going to be a special session devoted to this at the upcoming Health Physics Society annual meeting. See www.hps.org for details.

Bryan

Sent from myTouch 4G

----- Reply message -----
From: "GEOelectronics at netscape.com" <GEOelectronics at netscape.com>
To: "radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu" <radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Subject: [ RadSafe ] water cannon? New water will RAISE temperature.
Date: Wed, Mar 16, 2011 6:25 pm




Bryan said:"Looks like they are about to start spraying water from police water
cannon through a hole in the wall in an attempt to refill the pool (per
NHK report at 7am Japan time).

Bryan'

Bryan, I hope someone tells them A) hot, dry zirc4 rapidly oxidizes in the 
sudden presence of water (H2 given off in quantity and much extra heat) 

and 

B) Powerful jets of water can change the geometry (critical spacing) of fuel 
rods, possibly asking for a criticality event.


George Dowell



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