Fukushima nuggets of information.....

http://enenews.com/asahi-reporters-repeatedly-ask-govt-consider-worst-case-scenarios-unit-4-foreign-experts

 Officials try to calm fears about spent nuclear fuel rods
Asahi Shimbun AJW
By HIROSHI MATSUBARA
May 21, 2012

[...] During the news conference on May 21, the government spokesmen were repeatedly asked why they do not consider a worst-case scenario and start working to prevent a catastrophe in cooperation with foreign experts.

[Ikkp Nakatsuka, senior vice minister of the Cabinet Office and a Lower House member of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan who entered the reactor in April for an on-site inspection] refused to comment on these questions by using a twist of logic. After the Fukushima accident, we must no longer use the term “safe” without evaluating actual risk, he said. “So, government officials should not talk about ‘safety’ without presenting concrete risks.” [...]

and....

http://enenews.com/ambassadors-comments-translated-asahi-another-accident-4-reactor-building-could-final-catastrophe-world

 Officials try to calm fears about spent nuclear fuel rods
Asahi Shimbun AJW
By HIROSHI MATSUBARA
May 21, 2012

[...] Experts from around the world are becoming increasingly concerned about the state of the No. 4 reactor building. [...]

Mitsuhei Murata, former ambassador to Switzerland, also told an Upper House hearing in March that another accident at the reactor building could cause the “final catastrophe of the world.” [...]

 and.....

http://enenews.com/gundersen-pyrophoric-fire-fuel-rods-unit-4-pool-cooled-potential-contamination-entire-northern-hemisphere-video

Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Chief Nuclear Engineer: Unit 4 is weakened… I think about a M7.0-M7.5 quake will knock that building to the ground…

The fuel is still hot enough where it can begin to burn… cesium and plutonium and all that…

It would volatilize as the fuel burns, it creates a pyrophoric fire which is a fire that water cannot put out.

Likely resulting in an evacuation of Tokyo at the least, and potentially contamination of the entire northern hemisphere.

and.....


http://enenews.com/sleeper-unit-3-building-fatally-flawed-video

Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Chief Nuclear Engineer: This is the sleeper as far as I’m concerned.

Unit 3 has about half the nuclear fuel in its pool than Unit 4 does.

Some of it is still quite hot.

It had been removed about 6 months before the meltdowns.

So it has a hot enough quarter of a core that it could burn in air.

And of course the Unit 3 building is fatally flawed.

So my concern is the same problem on Unit 4 could occur on Unit 3, we seem to just worry about Unit 4.

Later in the program Gundersen notes that, unlike Unit 4, workers cannot enter Unit 3 for reinforcement work.