‘The Greatest Threat Humanity Has Ever Faced’: Fukushima Reactor No. 4 SFP ‘An Immediate Problem’ – Building Is Sinking, Over 30 Inches In Places

From the article:

The leakage of water from these cores is bad enough but the most dangerous thing is the cooling pool of unit 4. Now it is terribly dangerous because the entire hot core of reactor 4 had been removed and put in this cooling pool shortly before the tsunami. So, there was a hot core in this cooling pool the entire superstructure building was blown off in a hydrogen explosion.

The entire area is weakened and there is a great risk of an aftershock. Now this pool contains something on the order of 400.000 kg of hot plutonium. So, the thing that people should be aware of is that TEPCO is going to begin attempting to remove these rods from this pool to some other type of storage. This has never been done with plutonium rods that have been out of a core for such a short period of time.

There is a great danger of a thermonuclear reaction if these rods become exposed to the air and the cooling pool itself is just barely containing the temperature levels of the core as it is.

The media coverage of the situation has been almost non-existent. The public must become engaged and the governments must become engaged because this is a global threat. They say that one microgram of plutonium could theoretically kill a person.

There are billion micrograms in a kilogram and there are 400.000 hot kilograms in this pool. So, if these rods combust, if the set of rods begins a thermonuclear reaction, it will vaporize the water in the pool and the entire pool can become an uncontrolled nuclear reaction open to the air. These particles will be spread through the northern hemisphere.

This is perhaps the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. And I think you would acknowledge there has been far too little attention given to this at this point and the measures that the Japanese government is discussing at this point are not sufficient, I believe. Other governments must become engaged in this.


Professor: Fukushima Unit No. 4 “an immediate problem” — Building is sinking, over 30 inches in places (ENENews, Sep 3, 2013):

Title: Japanese government turns on TEPCO after latest Fukushima failures
Source: ABC Radio Australia
Date: September 3, 2013

At 1:30 in

Sen Lam, ABC Radio Australia: Professor Tanter, it’s been over two years since the disaster, and of course the situation as we’ve just found out is far from stable. In layman terms, what do you think is the biggest technical challenge facing the ruined nuclear plant to make it safe again?

Richard Tanter, expert on nuclear power issues and professor of international relations at the University of Melbourne: Well, the first one, and the most immediate one, is the news that the Reactor Unit 4, the one which has a very large amount of stored fuel in its fuel storage pool, that is sinking. According to former prime Minister Kan Naoto, that has sunk some 31 inches in places and it’s not uneven. This is really not surprising given what’s happened in terms of pumping of water, the aftermath of the earthquake and the tsunami, the continuing infusions of water into the groundwater area. This is an immediate problem, and if it is not resolved there is an extraordinary possibility we really could be back at March 2011 again because of the possibility of a fission accident in that spent fuel pond in Unit No. 4.

Full broadcast here

Fukushima radioactive leak is ‘the greatest threat humanity ever faced’ – expert (Voice of Russia, Sep 2, 2013):

Japan’s nuclear regulator has raised safety concerns about the hastily built storage tanks at Fukushima’s NPP after seeing signs of more radiation-contaminated water leaks. David Webb, Chief Executive Officer of Origin Investments AB, talked to the Voice of Russia about his opinion on the latest measures that are being taken to prevent further leaks and about the effectiveness of international help.

Among the latest measures to tackle the problem of Fukushima there are creation of a decommissioning agency and the merger of Nuclear Regulation Authority with Japan’s Nuclear Energy Safety Organization. Do you think that such bureaucratic procedures can be effective for tacking the issue?

I think we should keep in mind that TEPCO declared plants 1, 2 and 3 to be in cold shut-down. And of course we now know that was not the case. Other people were pointing out that the cores had melted down through the facility. We now know that is the case.

This problem with radioactive water was an inevitability. So, this has been known for 2 years. So, I think it does point out that the time had passed to allow the people in government there and TEPCO to address the situation. This calls for international cooperation.

The leakage of water from these cores is bad enough but the most dangerous thing is the cooling pool of unit 4. Now it is terribly dangerous because the entire hot core of reactor 4 had been removed and put in this cooling pool shortly before the tsunami. So, there was a hot core in this cooling pool the entire superstructure building was blown off in a hydrogen explosion.

The entire area is weakened and there is a great risk of an aftershock. Now this pool contains something on the order of 400.000 kg of hot plutonium. So, the thing that people should be aware of is that TEPCO is going to begin attempting to remove these rods from this pool to some other type of storage. This has never been done with plutonium rods that have been out of a core for such a short period of time.

There is a great danger of a thermonuclear reaction if these rods become exposed to the air and the cooling pool itself is just barely containing the temperature levels of the core as it is.

When you are saying about international effort, how could other countries help with that?

I think it is imperative that this is not looked at as a contracting opportunity and opportunity to make money out of this situation. This has to be dealt with something like a space race, like with the funding of a space program and all the technology and resources brought there for that kind of an effort. The inertia that we have seen with this, we are not seeing that kind of focus internationally. That needs to be brought to bear.

The media coverage of the situation has been almost non-existent. The public must become engaged and the governments must become engaged because this is a global threat. They say that one microgram of plutonium could theoretically kill a person.

There are billion micrograms in a kilogram and there are 400.000 hot kilograms in this pool. So, if these rods combust, if the set of rods begins a thermonuclear reaction, it will vaporize the water in the pool and the entire pool can become an uncontrolled nuclear reaction open to the air. These particles will be spread through the northern hemisphere.

This is perhaps the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. And I think you would acknowledge there has been far too little attention given to this at this point and the measures that the Japanese government is discussing at this point are not sufficient, I believe. Other governments must become engaged in this.

Flashback:

This is about the fate of  the whole world:

Fukushima Is Falling Apart: Are You Ready … For A Mass Extinction Event?:

If they are MOX fuel, containing 6% plutonium, one fuel rod has the potential to kill 2.89 billion people. If this pool collapses, as Senator Wyden is now saying too, we would face a mass extinction event from the release of radiation in those rods.

That is, if we aren’t in one already. Nuke experts like Arnie Gundersen and Helen Caldicott are prepared to evacuate their families to the southern hemisphere if that happens. It is that serious.

So now you know, if you didn’t before. We are in big trouble.

Ambassador Murata: Total Number Of Spent Fuel Rods At Fukushima Daiichi Site Excluding The Rods In The Pressure Vessel Is 11,421!!!:

Before the Committee, Ambassador Murata strongly stated that if the crippled building of reactor unit 4 – with 1,535 fuel rods in the spent fuel pool 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground – collapses, not only will it cause a shutdown of all six reactors but will also affect the common spent fuel pool containing 6,375 fuel rods, located some 50 meters from reactor 4.

In both cases the radioactive rods are not protected by a containment vessel. Indeed, they are open to the air, which is quite dangerous.

This would certainly cause a global catastrophe like we have never before experienced.

He stressed that the responsibility of Japan to the rest of the world is immeasurable. Such a catastrophe would affect us all for centuries.

Ambassador Murata informed us that the total number of the spent fuel rods at the Fukushima Daiichi site excluding the rods in the pressure vessel is 11,421 (396+615+566+1,535+994+940+6375).

Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland: ‘FATE Of Japan And The Whole World Depends On No.4 Reactor’

6 thoughts on “‘The Greatest Threat Humanity Has Ever Faced’: Fukushima Reactor No. 4 SFP ‘An Immediate Problem’ – Building Is Sinking, Over 30 Inches In Places”

  1. What happens if the land under the reactors continue to liquefy and they sink? That will destroy the livability of the entire northern hemisphere. We are moving into an area mankind has not experienced before, and looking at the fools in power, I don’t have much hope.

    Reply
  2. I wonder what the hell is going on, on one hand the UN, the USA and the EU are all scrambling to spend trillions of USD to avoid Global Warming, a yet unproven threat that we should endure its putative effects in 100 years.
    On the other hand nobody is doing anything about Fukishima.
    The only conclusion our governments are run by amateurs, idiots and the like.

    Reply
  3. I just read in the UK Guardian that the guy in the white house got his way, a war with Syria is pending.
    None of these fools are paying attention to this mess in Japan. What good is winning a war if you are confronting a fully radioactive ocean in six years or less?
    Shouldn’t the world get together and try to save our species?
    Their actions are so mindless.

    Reply
  4. The so-called experts who think moving to the southern hemisphere will help them give me even less faith anything can be done. The planet spins, everything is in motion. Going south won’t help with such a catastrophic event as they describe. They don’t know what is to be done, either. Their solution is absurd. With the food and ecological chain already interrupted, how will going south help?
    The suggestion of an international effort is equally absurd. Most nations of the world are run by fools, and the ones that are not would be shouted down by the majority of idiots. What can they do? They don’t know, either.

    They have done nothing until now, and will not do a thing. We don’t have the knowledge, technology or sense to stop it. So, they will deny it, or blame others. We have fools in power, so nothing will be done. Millions will die, maybe everyone. They will all die blaming someone else.

    As for this wall of ice, how can they build and maintain one? Has there ever been one built before? Why did it take 30+ months to come up with the idea if it is so great?
    This is like the patients taking control of the mental hospital………absurd, insane and lacking in practicality.
    98% of the species ever living on this planet are extinct. Looks like we are going to join them.

    Reply
  5. How on earth can we mess with this kind of technology and not have a plan in place for when things go wrong, are we all idiots with useless degrees that are not worth the paper they are printed on.
    We don’t even have a way to dispose of the rods! Irresponsible, short-sighted and plain stupid!

    Reply
  6. No readings have been taken by U.S. or UK or EU Governments…official. No news isreleased officially so nothing is passed on by Mainstream Media.
    We are deliberately being starved of information.
    Either none of this is real……or it is all part of the engineered plan for AGENDA 21.
    I just can’t help thinking it is all contrived, and we are the target.

    Reply

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