Where is the rest of the irradiated nuclear fuel in Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 storage pool?!

At its homepage, Fairewinds Associates has posted a new video featuring its nuclear safety engineer Arnie Gundersen. Thanks to a tip from Ian Goddard, Arnie has been able to identify a single high-level radioactive waste fuel bundle amidst the wreckage of the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 3 storage pool, in a video released by Tokyo Electric Power Company many weeks ago now. The discovery raises more questions that it answers. Why is there only one fuel bundle visible, when there should be many? Where have they gone? And why is the fuel bundle so close to the surface of the water, and thus the air above, when it should be located under much deeper water?

Fragments of irradiated nuclear fuel have been found up to a mile away from the shattered Fukushima Daiichi reactor blocks, likely indicating that one or more of the massive hydrogen gas explosions hurled irradiated nuclear fuel from elevated storage pools that far. And the Unit 3 explosion was the most dramatic of all, with a very tall mushroom shaped cloud hurtling skyward, with very large chunks of dark debris visibly raining down in its wake. Were the missing irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies in that rain of debris? Where did they land? Where are they now? Unshielded irradiated nuclear fuel can deliver a lethal dose of gamma radiation to anyone nearby in just a few minutes.

"First 24 hours shaped Japan nuke crisis"

As more detail and documentation has surfaced in the past nearly four months, the Associated Press has reported that the first 24 hours, from tsunami-strike to Unit 1's explosion, was marked by chaos and indecision on the ground at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

New petition to protect the children of Fukushima against radioactivity

Aileen Mioko Smith, director of Green Action Japan, has just announced an opportunity for individuals and organizations across the world to sign a petition demanding increased protection for the children of Fukushima against the clear and present danger from the Daiichi nuclear power plant's ongoing releases of hazardous radioactivity. To read and sign the petition, go to the Green Action Fukushima Updates website.

Thousands of anti-nuclear shareholders make their voices heard at Tepco annual meeting

Reuters reports that a large block of thousands of anti-nuclear shareholders made their voices heard at Tokyo Electric Power Company's annual meeting, campaigning in favor of a nuclear phase-out by the company that was only stopped by the influence of large institutional investors. A recent poll showed that nearly 70% of Japanese respondents favored a permanent closure of any reactors currently shut down for maintenance or inspections, even if that meant blackouts this summer during the peak annual demand. A whopping 35 of 54 atomic reactors are still shut down in Japan, a full three months and three weeks since the start of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe. BBC entitled its coverage of the clamor "Tepco faces shareholder wrath following nuclear crisis." Greenpeace protestors outside the meeting held signs reading TEPCO: The worst Ever Polluting COmpany.

15 tons of radioactively contaminated water leaks from storage tank at Fukushima Daiichi

Reuters reports that a storage container for radioactively contaminated cooling water at Fukushima Daiichi has sprung a leak and spilled 15 metric tons of its contents onto the ground. Also, the latest attempt to restart the water decontamination system yesterday was aborted after just an hour and a half of operations. Tokyo Electric Power Company is desperately trying to decontaminate over 100,000 tons of radioactively contaminated cooling water. It has run out of containers or locations to store any more, despite the ongoing need to douse the three melted down cores, lest they burn deeper through plant facilities and even the ground. Especially considering the rainy season, radioactively contaminated water could again start overflowing into the ocean.