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No Fuel In the Fukushima Reactor #1

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the oh-this-old-thing? dept.

An anonymous reader writes To nobody's surprise, the Japanese press reports that a new way to look at the inside of one of the Fukushima 1 damaged reactors has shown the fuel is not in place. Engineers have not been able to develop a machine to directly see the exact location of the molten fuel, hampered by extremely high levels of radiation in and around the reactors, but a new scan technique using muons (details on the method in the media are missing) have shown the fuel is not in its place. While Tepco's speculation is that the fuel may be at the bottom of the reactor, it is a safe bet that at least some of it has burned through and has gone on to create an Uruguay syndrom.

5 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. What on earth by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What on earth is "an Uruguay syndrom", and why does google have no idea either.

    1. Re:What on earth by Nutria · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Even by my standards that's obscure."

      Nah. He's old enough to remember the movie.

      Fears of a "China Syndrome" were quite high in the 1970s. Of course, if you were born in the 1980s (heck, even in the mid- to late- 1970s) then it probably is obscure!

      No GOML you whippersnapper!

      --
      "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
    2. Re:What on earth by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Anything that becomes molten will mix into the fuel and dilute it, lowering the reaction rate and moving you further and further away from a self-sustaining reaction."

      There's that, yes. And also the antigravity that's required on the second half of the trip.

  2. Job Security by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 4, Insightful

    With the decommissioning expected to take 3 to 4 decades, that's pretty good job security.

    Just too bad that the half-life of the workers will be less than the half-life of the job. But it "is" a lifetime job."

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  3. Re:The genius of holes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > Since the core contained tons of material it is impossibly naive to believe that it is even remotely contained.

    I agree with you completely, but want to point out that a great number of armchair physicists online have been scoffing and mocking people who indicate that the reactors melted down, that the fuel pools are not fully intact, and that the earthquakes caused real damage. Slowly, the picture of damage is becoming clear and those armchair physicists are being proven wrong. It's almost like global warming deniers. Fukushima deniers?