Situation at Fukushima Has Potential to, “Destroy the World Environment and Our Civilization”

April 8th, 2012
Via: Akio Matsumura:
Japan’s former Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Mitsuhei Murata, was invited to speak at the Public Hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on March 22, 2012, on the Fukushima nuclear power plants accident. 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; dangerously, they are open to the air. 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 numbers 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).

I asked top spent-fuel pools expert Mr. Robert Alvarez, former Senior Policy Adviser to the Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary for National Security and the Environment at the U.S. Department of Energy, for an explanation of the potential impact of the 11,421 rods.

I received an astounding response from Mr. Alvarez [updated 4/5/12]:
In recent times, more information about the spent fuel situation at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site has become known. It is my understanding that of the 1,532 spent fuel assemblies in reactor No. 304 assemblies are fresh and unirradiated. This then leaves 1,231 irradiated spent fuel rods in pool No. 4, which contain roughly 37 million curies (~1.4E+18 Becquerel) of long-lived radioactivity. The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements. If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cs-137 released by the Chernobyl accident.
The infrastructure to safely remove this material was destroyed as it was at the other three reactors. Spent reactor fuel cannot be simply lifted into the air by a crane as if it were routine cargo. In order to prevent severe radiation exposures, fires and possible explosions, it must be transferred at all times in water and heavily shielded structures into dry casks.. As this has never been done before, the removal of the spent fuel from the pools at the damaged Fukushima-Dai-Ichi reactors will require a major and time-consuming re-construction effort and will be charting in unknown waters. Despite the enormous destruction cased at the Da–Ichi site, dry casks holding a smaller amount of spent fuel appear to be unscathed.
Based on U.S. Energy Department data, assuming a total of 11,138 spent fuel assemblies are being stored at the Dai-Ichi site, nearly all, which is in pools. They contain roughly 336 million curies (~1.2 E+19 Bq) of long-lived radioactivity. About 134 million curies is Cesium-137 — roughly 85 times the amount of Cs-137 released at the Chernobyl accident as estimated by the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP). The total spent reactor fuel inventory at the Fukushima-Daichi site contains nearly half of the total amount of Cs-137 estimated by the NCRP to have been released by all atmospheric nuclear weapons testing, Chernobyl, and world-wide reprocessing plants (~270 million curies or ~9.9 E+18 Becquerel).

It is important for the public to understand that reactors that have been operating for decades, such as those at the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi site have generated some of the largest concentrations of radioactivity on the planet.

This is why I don't think God has to do anything with polar shifts and such. We're doing a great job setting ourselves up for destruction all by ourselves.

Let's assume 50 percent of the radioactive material in reactor 3 was atomised and drifted around the northern hemisphere.  How much radiation is in that sucker?

Somehow I doubt it is going to destroy life as we know it.  Increase in cancer? Sure, but I can't see that is is going to be a world changing event.  There is just not enough radioactive stuff in there to cause anything but local problems.  The dilution of it drifting around the world makes it far less dangerous.  It is just as likely to fall on 80 square miles of Wyoming or the pacific as it is to fall onto a major urban centre.

Leaving aside what only God knows -destruction of life as we know it- the problem is that the reactors have continued to melt down for the past 13 months.  There is no way to contain or control this diabolical form of energy.  They continue to spew radioactive isotopes, the zillions of gallons of water pumped onto them continue to flow into the sea nad the atmosphere.  It is 'bio-accuмulation' which is a big concern, and all of the spent fuel in reactor 4.  Also, fallout is by nature random.  There will be odd hot spots, only God knows where.  The heavier elements such as plutonium are said to be too heavy to travel far.

There is lots of MOX, lots of very bad stuff going on at Fukushima.  I'm pretty sure this is a [material] catastrophe beyond anything seen in thousands of years.  It's worse than atomic bombs, because it is ongoing.

There really is nothing to do except patient resignation.  

Let's assume 50 percent of the radioactive material in reactor 3 was atomised and drifted around the northern hemisphere.  How much radiation is in that sucker?

Somehow I doubt it is going to destroy life as we know it.  Increase in cancer? Sure, but I can't see that is is going to be a world changing event.  There is just not enough radioactive stuff in there to cause anything but local problems.  The dilution of it drifting around the world makes it far less dangerous.  It is just as likely to fall on 80 square miles of Wyoming or the pacific as it is to fall onto a major urban centre.

The contamination is falling on agriculture and water that we eat and drink. Just because it Might miss the big cities directly is of very little consequence.

If( and this is a Big if) the worst is over, the Pacific is still dead and MO is that the Western regions of North America will be rendered uninhabitable within the next yr or so. I am moving to Phoenix or maybe Corona Ca.

Chernobyl is child's play compared to Fukushima-- even IF it doesn't get any worse.

This is why I don't think God has to do anything with polar shifts and such. We're doing a great job setting ourselves up for destruction all by ourselves.

Israel was responsible for security at Fukishima.  Surprise, surprise.

Their Stuxnet virus was the culprit for this disaster..

It was intentional and deliberate.  
Some say payback. Or pure madness on their part.