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News | Energy & Sustainability

How Much Spent Nuclear Fuel Does the Fukushima Daiichi Facility Hold?

As Japan attempts to cool overheating nuclear fuel with seawater, experts worry

that the damaged spent-fuel pools pose the greatest threat

By Harmon | March 17, 2011 | 0

a.. Share b.. Email c.. Print

The Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

On March 11, a powerful, magnitude 9.0 quake hit northeastern Japan, triggering

a tsunami with 10-meter-high waves that reached the U.S. west coast. Here's the

science behind the disaster »

March 11, 2011

INTACT REACTORS: Several of the reactors (pictured here before the March 11

earthquake) at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have sustained damage,

making it difficult for crews to get close enough to stem the spread of

radioactive material.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Japan Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport

Supplemental Material

a..

Overview

In-Depth Report: The Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Helicopters and fire trucks

proved unsuccessful at replenishing damaged nuclear fuel pools at Japan's

Fukushima Daiichi plant on Thursday. The spent-fuel pools contain a large amount

of radioactive material that is not contained as well as that in the reactor

cores. And although information has been spotty, nuclear experts worry that this

fuel—which should be submerged in circulating water to keep it from

overheating—has been at least partly exposed in the pools belonging to reactor

Nos. 3 and 4.

In an early attempt to refill the vital pools with water Thursday, the Japan

Self Defense Forces (JSDF) dispatched a cargo helicopter—specially outfitted

with lead plates to help shield crewmembers from direct radiation—to drop

seawater on the plant's reactor No. 3. The unit houses MOX (mixed oxide) fuel,

which can melt at lower temperatures and could release some of its plutonium,

which has a half-life of 24,000 years.

Later that day, the country's National Police Agency attempted to use fire

trucks to pump water into No. 3's spent-fuel pools, but owing to high radiation

levels, operators were not able to get close enough. Five, more robust pump

trucks, sent later by the JSDF were able to move in close enough for 24 minutes

to inject some 30 tons of water into the low pools. As of 9:30 P.M. local time,

the " effect of this operation [was] still under evaluation, " the Japan Atomic

Industrial Forum (JAIF) reported.

As of 10 P.M. local time on Thursday, the JAIF listed the following status of

the six Fukushima Daiichi reactors:

• Buildings around reactor Nos. 1, 3 and 4 were " severely damaged " ; the

building housing reactor No. 2 was " slightly damaged " ;

• Cooling was not working for reactor Nos. 1, or 3;

• Water levels were covering more than half of the fuel in reactor No. 2;

reactor Nos. 1 and 3 water levels were covering only about half of the fuel.

• Structural integrity of the spent fuel pools was unknown for reactor Nos.

1 and 2;

• Reactor Nos. 3 and 4 had low water levels; pool temperature was

continuing to rise for reactor Nos. 5 and 6.

The spent fuel pools are of significant concern, Marvin Resnikoff, a radioactive

waste management consultant, said in a Wednesday press briefing organized by the

nonprofit organization Physicians for Social Responsibility. Resnikoff noted

that the pools at each reactor are thought to have contained the following

amounts of spent fuel, according to The Mainichi Daily News:

• Reactor No. 1 fuel pool: 50 tons of nuclear fuel

• Reactor No. 2 fuel pool: 81 tons

• Reactor No. 3 fuel pool: 88 tons

• Reactor No. 4 fuel pool: 135 tons

• Reactor No. 5 fuel pool: 142 tons

• Reactor No. 6 fuel pool: 151 tons

• Also, a separate ground-level fuel pool contains 1,097 tons of fuel; and

some 70 tons of nuclear materials are kept on the grounds in dry storage.

The reactor cores themselves contain less than 100 tons of fuel, Resnikoff

noted.

The fuel had been moved from reactor No. 4's core to its spent-fuel pool

recently, so " that fuel is relatively fresh and hotter, thermally, " Resnikoff

explained. " So it's not surprising that when the water [was] no longer

circulating that the water was actually boiled off in a zirconium exothermic

reaction, that the zirconium burned " (occurring at about 1,800 degrees Celsius).

Scientists are not confident that they will be able to assess just how much

radioactive material will have been released as this event unfolds,

, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel

Hill's School of Public Health, said in the press briefing. It might not be

until people can safely take stock of all of the fuel that is left, and then

only " by that we can make a reckoning of what was lost, " he said.

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