Page 2 - Uranium Fuel News Today

Taken. the rogue nation warns temperature end all nonaggression acts with south korea after the u.n. placed new sanctions on the north after it threatened a possible preemptive nuclear attack on the u.s.. tokyo electric power is struggling to stop ground water flooding at its damaged fukushima plant. the earthquake and tsunami two years ago caused the worst nuclear disaster since chernobyl. damage at the plant might delay the removal of melteded uranium fuel by four years. facebooks latest f...

And "titanic 3d" which by the way does not end well. >> days before nuclear talks with iran, the white house is stepping up the pressure calling for iran to immediately close one of its nuclear facilities and halt the production of uranium fuel. president obama saying this is irans last chance to calm nuclear tensions. in the midst of the campaign re-election, do these things really matter? does his words really matter? is it just political rhetoric? joining us is former u.s. ambassador to the u...

Undergoes the first process that heats the water. >> in the massive turbine room. 2,000 mega was of power is generated. after six years of use, the uranium fuel is transferred to spent fuel pool. the pools are built into bedrock with walls made of steel reinforced concrete. all of the spent fuel thats been used at units three since 1976 is in that spent fuel pool. which is under about 25 feet of water. it not only helps keep the fuel cool, but also provides protection from harmful radiation. >> ...

Are just under 1,500 fuel rod assemblies in all the reactors at daiichi. fuel rods are what hold the uranium fuel that releases radioactive gunk into the atmosphere if those fuel rods are damaged. each fuel rod assembly holds about 380 pounds of uranium. so if you do the math, that means in total the risk we are talking about here is just over a half million pounds of uranium in the reactors. about 260 metric tons of uranium fuel at risk of dumping radioactivity into the environment in japan. bu...

Thinking about this next move which would be to dump sand and dirt, especially filled with particles of boron and lead, things that can absorb neutronsneutrons and cut down on radiation and basically just bury the fuel rods. it is scheduled to take place at reactor two on saturday and reactor one on sunday. thats how its moving along in this battle but it still is -- as we indicated, far from over and it remains an ominous situation. >> there will be progress if they can get that power hooked ba...

Infrastructure, the risk is not really a mushroom cloud. theres not a real risk here of a nuclear explosion like you get with a nuclear bomb. a mushroom cloud and all that. the risk here is the release of radioactivity into the environment. and the important issue is how much radioactivity we are talking about. tepco now clarifies that there are just under 1,500 fuel rod assemblies in all the reactors at daiichi. fuel rods are what hold the uranium fuel that releases radioactive gunk into the at...

Assuming hes referring to the fuel rods, cant be for sure, the fuel rods in the fuel pool. we believe that secondary containment has been destroyed and there is no water in the spent fuel pool, that radiation levels are extremely high. so this is something we spoke about yesterday, that already used fuel rods, so that -- i mean, how serious is that? >> thats very serious. chairman jaczko has said this, this means that the spent fuel in unit four has been exposed, has been -- the zirconium which ...

Controlled reaction. instead of blowing up, the reaction creates heat. and the heat is what we are after because thats what these reactors use to make a lot of electricity. to make that nuclear reaction that makes that heat, those uranium pellets are the fuel. and just like any fuel, it gets used up eventually. your 12 foot long fuel rod, that lasts about six years in a reactor. with a reactor in effect turned on, the fission process over about six years uses that uranium fuel up. it becomes som...

Used up eventually. your 12 foot long fuel rod full of the uranium pellets lasts about six years in a reactor, with the reactor turned on, the fission process over about six years uses that uranium fuel up. it becomes something they call spent fuel. and when they call it spent fuel, what they mean is that it is degraded enough that even though it is still wicked radioactive, it is no longer efficient for doing what nuclear power plants are supposed to do, which is generating a lot of heat, boili...

With the reactor turned on, the fission process over about six years uses that uranium fuel up. it becomes something they call spent fuel. and when they call it spent fuel, what they mean is that it is degraded enough that even though it is still wicked radioactive, it is no longer efficient for doing what nuclear power plants are supposed to do, which is generating a lot of heat, boiling a bunch of water, making a bunch of steam that spins turbines that make electricity. so heres the problem. a...