So says Tony Irwin of the Australian National University for France24 here:
"Reactors 5 and 6, they are now in what's called cold shutdown, and the spent fuel cooling ponds are at normal temperatures.
"They are in the sort of situation now we would like to see 1, 2, 3 and 4 in.
"There was already spent fuel in there [before No. 4 was drained and emptied last November] so there was quite a high load of spent fuel in that pond. And that has been giving the main radiation effects on site."
One presumes from that that the high heat coming off the pond kept boiling away the water during the crisis and not that an earthquake related leak in the pond kept drawing down the level.
For the first time I read in the article a concern about all the sea water being poured on the stricken reactors because it thereby becomes radioactive waste.
Where is it all going, ton after ton? To air and back to sea?
Undoubtedly.
One presumes from that that the high heat coming off the pond kept boiling away the water during the crisis and not that an earthquake related leak in the pond kept drawing down the level.
For the first time I read in the article a concern about all the sea water being poured on the stricken reactors because it thereby becomes radioactive waste.
Where is it all going, ton after ton? To air and back to sea?
Undoubtedly.
