http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/at-two-reactors-a-race-
to-contain-meltdowns/2011/03/13/ABtdVDU_story.html?wpisrc=nl_natlalert
http://tinyurl.com/4dokt8a
"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, are placed above
the reactor. Tokyo Electric said that 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 believe 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 Inc. and a member of the
public oversight panel for the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, which is
identical to the Fukushima Daiichi unit 1."
"Gundersen said the unit 1 pool could have as much as 20 years of
spent fuel rods, which are still radioactive."
Best regards,
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
