Quote:
Katherine Derbyshire wrote:
Actually, "criticality" specifically refers to the presence of a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. That condition has not been present at Fukushima since the emergency shutoffs kicked in after the earthquake. "Fission" is simply the normal decay process that occurs in unstable isotopes.
Which is why your "2500 ton vs 180 ton" comparison is meaningless. An active reactor core is isotopically different from the contents of a spent fuel pond. The spent fuel is going to be much more stable: that's why it's "spent."
Katherine
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Try posting this at theoildrum and you would simply be ignored for being too rubbish to reply to. The spent fuel pools, without water, are undergoing fission and that's where most of the radiation's been coming from. If you've been paying attention you would know one or more of the pools was loaded last December, making it very fresh spent fuel.