Nuclear Holocaust

This article will analyze the safety of a nuclear power plant. The fuel of a nuclear plant is uranium that is radioactive and extremely toxic. Uranium 238U is a silvery metal that is mined from the earth then the uranium ore is refined (hydrochloric acid) into pure uranium (yellow cake) that is melted into small cylindrical pellets (2 inch long and .25-inch diameter) that are inserted into a 12 ft hollow steel tube where 226 tubes filled with uranium pellets are stacked to form a 12 feet uranium rod (1,000 lb). A uranium rod is emitting gamma rays that are massless and can penetrate the adjacent rods resulting in a fission reaction. When the rods are placed close together, the rods interact by gamma rays since neutrons that have a mass cannot propagate through matter. The rods activated by gamma rays result in the rods to heat until glowing hot (fission) which produces the power of a nuclear power plant. The Geiger counter’s clicks are formed by only gamma rays since only massless gamma rays can propagate through the detector’s sealed ionization tube. Water and boron steel control rods are used to control the temperature of the fission reaction (572o F) of the uranium rods that generate steam that runs a turbine. The boron control rods encased in stainless steel are inserted between the uranium rods that boron absorbs the gamma rays to slow or stop the fission reaction. Neutrons, composed of matter, cannot propagate through steel encasement of the control rods that contain the boron can neutrons, that have a mass, penetrate the uranium rods to form a nuclear fission. When the uranium rods are not cooling properly or the reactor is not shut down (it takes the minimum of three hours to lower the control rods into the reactor core for a shutdown), the uranium rods begin to melt (2,070o F) resulting in the steam to form hydrogen gas that can produce a nuclear explosion.

In normal circumstances, after six years of use, the 200 uranium rods, undergoing fission, loss radioactivity which results in the decrease in the rate of fission since the gamma rays decay the uranium resulting in the uranium rods to reduce (deplete) to an isotope of uranium 235U. The depleted (spent) used rods are replaced with new uranium rods 238U. These used uranium rods are still extremely dangerous since the used depleted uranium is an isotope of uranium that depleted uranium 235 has a half-life of 700 million years and can produce fission. The fire of the Fukushima spent fuel rod pools at reactor 4 was caused by the water overheating (+600o F) and producing hydrogen gas that began to burn. The used (spent) fuel rods are stored in cooling pools (large swimming pools containing water) since the used rods can still produce fission but at a lower rate. The used rods are submerged in water to keep the rods cool. When the rods stored in a cooling pond are not cooled, the used fuel rods will produce fission chain reaction and can cause a nuclear explosion, when the water leaks out of a cooling pond or water is not continuously added to the pond since the used fuel rods are radiating heat that evaporates the water. The spent fuel uranium rods ponds will have to be maintained for 60,000 years since the depleted uranium is not in fact depleted but highly radioactive and will be as radioactive in 120,000 years as they are today and the deleted uranium can be used to make an atomic bomb (75%). The overheated spent (depleted) fuel rods can produce a fission reaction and produce a nuclear explosion if hydrogen gas od trapped in the core; consequently, these fuel rod should be used, in the reactor core, until a significant amount of the uranium cannot produce fission (20 years instead of six years) that would split the uranium atoms which makes the storage of the spent fuel rods safer. The rods’ structure are said to become brittle after eight-year use in the core which is solved by re-encasing the deleted uranium pellets in new stainless steel tube encasements then reusing the stainless encased depleted uranium rods.

There are an average of two reactors per nuclear power plant and 440 nuclear power plants in the world that store their used (spent) fuel rods in on site ponds which is an extremely precarious situation. If all 900 reactors and their respective used uranium rod pools were to meltdown and explode, all life on earth would terminate, within 120 years and never return. Nuclear power plant explosions are extremely dirty since a large amount of whole uranium is released as fallout. An atomic bomb contains 200 lb of uranium; whereas, a single 30 year old nuclear reactor power plant contains 400 tons of uranium. The combination of nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants plus the used uranium rod ponds is an extremely dire situation that can be minimized. In the case of a World War III that subjugates the electrical power grid and nuclear plant personal, a safer method to store the used rods would be to encase the rods in glass or cement, as the French did or still do and the USA says that they do, which purpose is to ensure that the rods are separated since the closeness of the used fuel rods causes the rods to produce a fission reaction. The cement or glass encased fuel rod can then be stored without using cooling ponds and the rods cannot meltdown since the melt down of used rods require the close proximity of the uranium rods that is eliminated by the cement or glass enclosure. The radiation levels of the rods will stay constant for more than 200,000 years. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is implying that the spent fuel rods are encased in cement and stored outside the reactor in nuclear storage sites but only a small amount of the spent fuel is being stored in these sites (less than 3%). Most of the spent fuel is stored on nuclear power plants in ponds.

A nuclear reactor uses 200 uranium rods that are used for 6 years; therefore, a thirty-year-old nuclear plant with two reactors contains approximately 2,000 rods (1,000 tons) in pools which is five times the necessary uranium to run a nuclear plant. A safer method is to build nuclear storage sites in the desert far away from the nuclear power plant and to bury, without air pockets, the encased used uranium fuel rods in the desert which would reduce the risk by more than 500%. One cannot be reliant on the NRC for guidance since Tepco nuclear engineers built cooling pools next to the reactor core, near the top of the reactor core. When the reactor core exploded, the cooling pools filled with uranium rods became part of the Fukushima fallout and corium fission-mass that melted through the core and cement base. The reactor and pool structure was constructed by General Electric nuclear engineers (General Electric Mark III Containment reactor) and the construction was approved by the NRC. The cooling pool, filled with 200 tons of uranium rods, resulted in at least one of the reactors producing a 50 - 100 ton corium fission-ball (CFB) that melted through the reactor core’s steel walls and the three meter thick cement (melt pt. 2,000o F) core foundation block and the corium fission-ball is currently producing a fission reaction 30 meters below the core (that is being cooled with water) which would not have occurred if the spent rod cooling pools were located anywhere except near the top of the reactor.

There are GE Mark III containment and reactor structures that have fuel pools at the top of the reactor still being used today. Also, the Fukushima explosion was a nuclear explosion that destroyed a 5-inch thick steel core and half a eight-story building with 10-inch-thick concrete walls that enclosed the Fukushima reactor core and produced the infamous Fukushima nuclear fallout that includes radioactive 137-cesium which proves the Fukushima explosions were nuclear explosion. Tepco is concealing that it was a nuclear explosion but wants to highlight that 137 cesium is the radioactive product that is causing the radiation since 137-cesium has a short half-life but 137-cesium proves a nuclear explosion occurred. When the Fukushima reactors exploded, it sent 3,000 uranium rods worth of pulverized uranium (more than 200 tons), from the cooling ponds atop the core, into the atmosphere forming the fallout and 100-tons of uranium to form the corium fission-mass (CFM). Tepco is improperly storing the contaminated soil since another tsunami could wash the contaminated soil into the ocean which would be catastrophic since rain originates from the ocean. Current US federal occupational limit of exposure for an adult is 5.3 Rad/yr (.057 Sv/yr). The dose of 250 to 500 rad/yr (2.5 to 5 Sv/yr) would kill half the exposed population with radiation sickness. Today Fukushima city (45 miles from the nuclear power plant) produces 8 micro Sv/hr or 8 x 10-3 Sv/hr (24hr /day) (364 days/yr) = 70 Sv/yr = 7000 rad/yr.

Fukushima city will never be habitable unless every uranium particle from the topsoil, trees, animals and groundwater is removed. In Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the nuclear explosion split the uranium atom into smaller radioactive elements (cesium 137, strontium 90 and carbon 14) that have considerable short half-life than uranium and only 200 lb of Uranium was used; consequently, Nagasaki and Hiroshima are habitual since an atomic bomb is a clean nuclear explosion but at Fukushima, a large amount of uranium was dispersed as fallout (more than 50 ton). The explosion of a nuclear power plant is extremely dirty since whole uranium particles were distributed as fallout. Fukushima prefecture will never be habitable, even in 10,000 years, since the radiation levels will not decrease in one million years unless all the uranium is removed. Every little, tiny tinny speck of uranium dust must be isolated and removed. One possible uranium removal method to make Fukushima city habitable again is to convert uranium into a form of uranium oxide that is magnetic at low temperature (-130o F) then use a strong magnet to pick up the uranium particles from the contaminated soil. There are no shortcuts and covering up the problem is only making the problem worse for Japan and the World since there is an uncontrollable corium fission-ball at the bedrock that is being cooled with water and creating an enormous amount of radioactive water. More radioactive water is being released into the sea, at Fukushima, than all the radioactive water ever produced by all the nuclear power plants and the problem is never going to go away. Also, to further improve the safety of a nuclear power plant, if the bottom of the reactor were lined with a three-foot-thick flat surface composed of carbon/graphite (max. temp. 5,000o F), the melted corium (max. temp. 4070o F) would not penetrate the core and if an additional granite slab were placed underneath the core to catch the corium and spread the corium out to stop the fission reaction.. Plus, to prevent the nuclear explosion of the reactor core, if the top of the core could pop off during a meltdown to prevent the accumulation of hydrogen gas. The uranium will not explode without hydrogen gas. Also, hydrogen gas may be fueling the 50-ton Fukushima fission corium fission-ball (CFB) and the layers above the corium are exacerbating the problem.

The corium fission-ball (CFB) has stop at the granite bedrock (2,300°F melting pt.) To stop the corium fission-ball, first, remove all the uranium rods from the Fukushima nuclear power plant then demolish and remove the physical structure (reactor core and remaining building). Excavate the earth to the bedrock and as close to the CFB as possible (15 meters). Take chains and remove the melt layers above the CFB. Shut off the water that is being used to cool the CFB and air cool the CFB. Use robotic bulldozers to excavate around the CFB to eliminate the structural support around the corium fission-ball. Attach heavy chains to the bulldozers to drag them out if they malfunction and have personnel ready to operate the equipment which should include a large diamond drill. Opening up the support structure around the CFB will collapse the CFB and end the fission reaction.

“Tepco estimates published in May 2012 showed a total of about 1020 PBq released to the atmosphere over 12-31 March 2011…………..Relatively little radioactive material was released by the active venting of pressure inside the reactor vessels (routing steam through water and releasing it through the exhaust stacks) or by the hydrogen explosions.” https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/fukushima-radiation-exposure.aspx. According to Topco no uranium was released by the Fukushima disaster yet 100 tons of uranium was in the cooling pools, at the time of the explosion, and, at Chernobyl uranium was present in the soil. https://academic.oup.com/femsec/article/doi/10.1093/femsec/fix079/3883766

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