[ RadSafe ] NHK Report on Initial Removal of Fuel Rods from Fukushima Reactor #4 Cooling Pool

[Roger Helbig]

Thanks, Mike.  The #4 Pool was full because the reactor was shut down
Nov 30, 2010.  The others had very few elements in them so never made
the woe is me doom circuit.  I am sure that reports of the meltdown
include the numbers of fuel rods in each.

Roger Helbig

On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 9:25 AM, Brennan, Mike  (DOH)
<Mike.Brennan at doh.wa.gov> wrote:
> You are correct that the unused fuel does not need cooling.  I suspect
> there are a couple of reasons they are moving it to the storage pool:
>
> 1.  Practice.  These are low risk items, so getting a couple of
> transfers under their belts where even if things go wrong they can't
> really go horribly wrong is a good idea.
> 2.  Having been in the spent fuel pool it is possible that they are
> contaminated.  If cladding on some of the actual spent fuel was breached
> there is a possibility the unused fuel has surface contamination.  Yes,
> it could be removed, but where and when would YOU want to do the survey
> and decon: on top of blown apart nuclear reactor building, beside a
> spent fuel pool, with winter coming on, or practically anywhere else?
> 3.  Even though the fuel is unused, do you really see anyone letting it
> into their reactor without close examination (and maybe even not then)?
> So it has to go somewhere, and the paperwork is probably easier just to
> move it with the spent fuel.
>
> As to how long spent fuel needs to cool before it can go into dry cask;
> it depends on a number of factors.  Three years sounds a little short to
> me, but I could be wrong.  I suspect that a lot of the fuel in the pool
> can, should, and will wind up in dry cask, but I think that is something
> to deal with after it is no longer up on a compromised building.
>
> Something that I have wondered about is the state of the fuel pools on
> reactors 1-3.  I don't recall having heard anything about them.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
> [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Roger Helbig
> Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 3:39 AM
> To: RADSAFE
> Subject: [ RadSafe ] NHK Report on Initial Removal of Fuel Rods from
> Fukushima Reactor #4 Cooling Pool
>
> I am a bit confused on why fuel rods that have never been in the reactor
> need to be stored in a cooling pool.  I also thought that spent fuel
> rods that are nearing three years into the fission product decay cycle
> would no longer need to be stored in a cooling pool, but could be placed
> in more secure dry cask storage.
>
> Here is NHK report - that I found after watching another partial report
> filtered through MOXNews linked to Christina MacPherson's Nuclear-News's
> blog - the partial report crashed - perhaps due to my own DSL modem
> failure (does anyone have a recommendation for a really good DSL modem?
> - my Motorola one constantly overheats and I keep it cool with Blue Ice
> block)
>
> Roger Helbig
>
> http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20131121_36.html
>
> "Cask" containing fuel moved into safer pool
>
> The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant says it has removed
> the first batch of nuclear fuel from the reactor 4 building to a safer
> storage pool.
>
> Footage released by Tokyo Electric Power Company on Thursday shows
> workers lowering a steel cask containing 22 unused fuel assemblies from
> the 5th floor of the reactor building. Engineers used a huge crane to
> lower the cask, 5.5 meters long and two meters across, onto a trailer on
> the ground.
>
> The container was transferred slowly to a separate pool in a building
> 100 meters away, and lowered into water to store the fuel more safely.
>
> TEPCO plans to begin on Friday plucking the fuel assemblies out of the
> cask and placing them in storage racks inside the pool. The utility says
> it will review the process before starting a second round of fuel
> transfer.
>
> Thursday's transfer involved unused fuel units. The reactor's storage
> pool has 1,511 fuel assemblies left, including 1,331 highly radioactive
> spent fuel assemblies.
>
> TEPCO says the building housing the separate pool can withstand an
> earthquake as strong as the March 2011 disaster that badly damaged the
> plant.
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