Beyond Nuclear discusses high-level radioactive waste storage pool risks on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture"

On June 9, 2016, Thom Hartmann, host of "The Big Picture" on RT, interviewed Beyond Nuclear's Radioactive Waste Watchdog, Kevin Kamps, regarding a Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) spokesman's admission that the 200 metric tons in each of three melted atomic reactors (for a total of 600 metric tons) is simply still missing, more than five years into the ongoing nuclear catastrophe.

Kevin talks about the risks associated with 22 identically designed General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors still operating in the U.S., as well as the 8 additional Mark IIs of very similar design.

Kevin also shares the revelation from a recent U.S. National Academies of Sciences report, that a high-level radioactive waste storage pool fire at Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 was very narrowly averted in March-April 2011, by sheer luck. A gate between the pool, and the adjacent water-filled reactor cavity, failed for some still unexplained reason. The flood of water prevented the pool from boiling or evaporating dry to the tops of the irradiated nuclear fuel assemblies, which then would have quickly reached ignition temperature, releasing up to ten times the radioactive Cesium-137 that got out during the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.

Listen to the full interview, from the 44:30 minute mark to the 49:30 minute mark of the program.