Removing the fuel rods at Fukushima

Tepco will soon be starting to remove 1535 fuel rods.  John Light comments on this effort:

The rods are capable of producing radiation at levels 14,000 times greater than what was released when America dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It’s a highly dangerous operation that has never been attempted on such a scale before, and a key part of decommissioning the facility, which could cost $50 billion and take 40 years.

The fuel rod removal effort is expected to take 13 months to complete, but experts warn that putting the radioactive rods into safe storage won’t be easy. If any of the 15-foot, 660-pound rods break or are exposed to air, huge amounts of radioactive gasses could be released. Should there be another natural disaster like the earthquake Suzuki warned of, those rods could set off a catastrophic reaction that would be more dangerous than the meltdowns the plant has already experienced.

In September when the removal date was set at November 15, I commented:

If any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The risk of touching is high.  The rods are in a badly damaged pool perched 100 feet in the air.  The building containing the rods is tilting, sinking and could easily come down in the next earthquake, if not on its own.

The Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo said earlier this year that there’s a 70 percent chance a 7.0-magnitude or higher quake will strike Tokyo, near Fukushima, by 2016.