Plutonium Japan and You. Fukushima nuclear info you need to know

This is a repost of the original... The first thread / forum I posted automatically turnicated the post... The second did not go under my account... ??? So here is the full article... I hope it all posts this time...

Tacomagroove
[link to www.ccnr.org]
America wake up and smell the Plutonium…

How much plutonium does it take
to overdose a person?

Foreword

Plutonium is a highly toxic material. Attempts to deny or to obscure this fact are, we feel, irresponsible.

Some spokespersons for AECL and for the Government of Canada have suggested that there is no danger involved in MOX transport worthy of anyone’s serious consideration.

We feel compelled to point out that, although the probability of a severe accident that would release plutonium to the atmosphere is admittedly small, the potential health and environmental consequences of such an accident can be serious due to the extraordinary toxicity of plutonium when inhaled.

It is for this reason alone that the United States of America has made it illegal to transport plutonium by air in US territory. Such a prohibition does not exist for any other radioactive material.

Atomic Energy of Canada Limited has admitted, in documents submitted to Transport Canada, that in four out of eight categories of serious road transportation accidents, the MOX containers would be completely destroyed and a plume of plutonium dust would be spread downwind to a distance of about 80 kilometers.

Transport Canada has stated — not once, but several times, in its response to public commentaries about AECL’s plans for MOX transport by road — that transporting MOX by air is much more dangerous than doing it by road because of the health dangers of inhaling plutonium dust following an accident.

Industry and government spokespersons have insisted that120 grams of plutonium is too small an amount to raise legitimate health and environmental concerns. They have made the irrelevant observation that 120 grams of plutonium is about the size of two A-A batteries.

Such remarks are manipulative in nature; they do not help people to weigh the risk. The important quantity is not the VOLUME or MASS of plutonium, but its TOXICITY. Based on data supplied by AECB (see letter above) we can address the toxicity question as follows:

In principle, using AECB’s regulatory limits,
how many ”civilians” can be overdosed
by 100 grams of plutonium?

0.1 micrograms can overdose One civilian
0.1 grams can overdose One million civilians
1 gram can overdose ten million civilians
100 grams can overdose one billion civilians
600 grams can overdose six billion civilians

If there is a serious accident involving
120 grams of plutonium (in the form of MOX),
how many civilian overdoses could, in principle, result?

if NONE of the plutonium is safely contained there is a potential for one billion two hundred million civilian overdoses.

if 90 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
one hundred and twenty million civilian overdoses.

if 99.9 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for one hundred and twenty thousand civilian overdoses.

if 99.999 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
one thousand two hundred civilian overdoses.

In principle, using AECB’s regulatory limits,
how many ”atomic radiation workers” can be
overdosed by 140 grams of plutonium?

1.4 micrograms can overdose one atomic worker

1.4 grams can overdose one million workers

14 grams can overdose ten million workers

140 grams can overdose one hundred million workers

560 grams can overdose four hundred million workers

If there is a serious accident involving
600 grams of plutonium (in the form of MOX),
how many worker overdoses could, in principle, result?

if NONE of the plute is safely contained there is a potential for
four hundred twenty-five million worker overdoses

if 90 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
forty-two and a half million worker overdoses

if 99.9 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
forty-two and a half thousand worker overdoses

if 99.999 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
four hundred and twenty-five worker overdoses

If there is a serious accident involving
600 grams of plutonium (in the form of MOX),
how many civilian overdoses could, in principle, result?

if NONE of the plute is safely contained there is a potential for
six billion civilian overdoses

if 90 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
six hundred million civilian overdoses

if 99.9 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
six hundred thousand civilian overdoses

if 99.999 percent of it is safely contained there is a potential for
six thousand civilian overdoses

Each fuel rod contains 20% plutonium. There are 360 fuel pellets per rod. Estimated weight of pellets are 5 grams.

There are 264 fuel rods per assembly…

So.

264 x 360 =95,040 (total fuel pellets per fuel assembly)

95,040 x 5 grams = 475,200 grams of nuclear fuel…

Divide 475,000 By 20% to find the quantity of plutonium…

475,000g x 0.20 (20%) = 95,040 grams of plutonium… (per fuel assembly)…

[link to my.firedoglake.com]

We’d be lucky if we only had to worry about the spent fuel rods from a single holding pool. We’re not that lucky. The Fukushima Daiichi plant has seven pools for spent fuel rods. Six of these are (or were) located at the top of six reactor buildings. One “common pool” is at ground level in a separate building. Each “reactor top” pool holds 3450 fuel rod assemblies. The common pool holds 6291 fuel rod assemblies. [The common pool has windows on one wall which were almost certainly destroyed by the tsunami.] Each assembly holds two hundred sixty-three fuel rods. This means the Fukushima Daiichi plant may contain over 600,000 spent fuel rods.

So top fuel pool holds 3450 assemblies, common fuel pool holds 6291 assemblies…

Total: 9741 assemblies x 95,040g plutonium =

total =925,784,640g plutonium (in reactor 3 alone)…

now it gets fun…

925,784,640g plutonium / 10% = 92,578,464g plutonium

1.0g plutonium is equal to ten million Overdose’s…

92,578,464g plutonium x 10 million Overdoses =’s

Now if only 10% of the fuel in reactor 3 escaped…

927,584,640,000,000 Overdoses Globally

Cheers,
Emmy…
p.s. 1% is simply taking off 1, zero off the end...

So if only 1% of reactor 3 was released...
92,758,464,000,000 overdoses

0.1% of fuel released would be
9,275,846,400,000 overdoses...

So in that case if only 1 millionth of the fuel was release respectably, 9,275,846 would be potentially affected.

Though the likely hood of this is a theoretical impossibility...

Due to the amounts of radiation released to date, one can be and should be certain that at least 10 pounds of plutonium was released in March 2011...

2800 grams per pound (roughly). - 10 million overdoses per gram...

28,000,000,000 Overdoses.