Bellona: Collapse of spent fuel storage pool at Fukushima Daiichi could be worse than initial accident, says new report

From: Swiss Think-Tank: Dire situation for global environment if No. 4 fuel pool releases all radioactive material — Gov’t appears to be keeping information classified

A collapse of the already tilting reactor No 4 building at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant [...] would lead to a “significant global impact”

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According to the report [released by Holpchi CH, a Swiss-based industrial analytics think-tank], radiological fires would lead to some 30 to 100 percent of the cesium and strontium being released from the pool.

“If a radiological fire occurs and further cooling is impossible, more than 10 percent of the radioactive material of the [spent fuel pond] cold be released,” read the report. “Release of 100 percent of the cesium, strontium and other isotopes would scale the base case results by a factor of 10 and would clearly present a dire situation for areas of Japan, marine life in the Pacific and the global environment.”

The report acknowledges that it is not fully comprehensive, saying that many modeling structures about what could happen should the spent fuel pool fail “have been developed by government, but appear to be classified.”

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