NRC: No Water In Spent Fuel Pool Of Japan Plant

Exposed Spent Fuel Rods Posing New Issue for Japanese Nukes

Japanese officials have admitted that the cores of Units 1, 2 and 3 have started to melt down, but Tokyo Electric spokesman Masahisa Otsuki said the spent fuel rods were of greatest concern because there were no protective shells around the storage pools, the Associated Press reported. Otsuki was quoted as saying: "We haven't been able to get any of the latest data at any spent fuel pools. We don't have the latest water levels, temperatures, none of the latest information for any of the four reactors."

Ed Lyman, a physicist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, was quoted as saying: "For the time being, the greatest concern is the spent fuel pools because there is a clear pathway for release of radioactivity from the pools into the environment." Efforts to drop coolant on the pools from helicopters were suspended because levels of radiation were so high above the pools. The spent fuel rods in the pools contain more total radioactive material than the rods in the reactor, including a radioactive form of cesium, the AP reported.