Re: [Vo]:Storms says material in reactor 4 pond not likely to reach criticality

In reply to Jed Rothwell's message of Fri, 18 Mar 2011 20:43:36 -0400: Hi, [snip] >Water reacts with hot Zr to produce powdered ZrO2 and with uranium to >produce powdered U3O8, which generates a lot of heat, resulting in the >observed fires. The UO2 is only slightly reactive with water and is not

[Vo]:Storms says material in reactor 4 pond not likely to reach criticality

I asked Ed what he thinks of TEPCO's comment quoted in the New Scientist: ". . . for the fuel pond at reactor 4, 'the risk of recriticality is not zero', meaning a nuclear chain reaction could restart in the rods. Quite how this has come about is unclear." Ed agrees this is unclear. Very unclear.