Talk about sticking my foot in my mouth.
It now looks almost certain that the containment for Unit 2 has been breached and that the core may be in or close to full meltdown mode. I am being told second hand that my fears that the core will create a massive steam explosion that compromise the whole structure are not unfounded by still “unlikely.” This is by a friend of a friend who works at a nuclear plant, however they are totally caught off guard by developments as well.
Yet, I read something a few hours ago that horrified me. I did not want to post on it until I got confirmation because unlike the other aspects of light water reactor design I had never heard about it. It comes from this Washington Post article:
At the 40-year-old Fukushima Daiichi unit 1, where an explosion Saturday destroyed a building housing the reactor, the spent fuel pool, in accordance with General Electric’s design, is placed above the reactor. Tokyo Electric said it was trying to figure out how to maintain water levels in the pools, indicating that the normal safety systems there had failed, too. Failure to keep adequate water levels in a pool would lead to a catastrophic fire, said nuclear experts, some of whom think that unit 1’s pool may now be outside.
“That would be like Chernobyl on steroids,” said Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer at Fairewinds Associates and a member of the public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is identical to the Fukushima Daiichi unit 1.
People familiar with the plant said there are seven spent fuel pools at Fukushima Daiichi, many of them densely packed.
Gundersen said the unit 1 pool could have as much as 20 years of spent fuel rods, which are still radioactive.
This is mind boggling to say the least. I was incredulous that it could be be true. I told my friend about it and asked him to find out more and yes, it is accurate. If the spent fuel rods are exposed it could release much more radiation than Chernobyl because of the amount of radioactivity stored and the fact there is almost no containment on these rods. I should mention that this is still not likely, I repeat: it is not likely. However it is not beyond the realm of possibility.
I am conflicted about whether to post this because I don’t want to contribute to fear mongering, but on the other hand I think it is important to note this for posterity at a time where we still don’t know what’s going to happen. I want to reiterate that this entire design (both the reactor and the storage) is not how the vast majority of reactors are designed as it is an old flawed one. I am greatly concerned that it will be conflated with all nuclear technology, which is why I have been irritated by how this situation has been presented from the beginning.
Let us hope it’ll just be a bad dream.