Reply #146: Again, if particles of Pu are outside containment, the only physically possible explanation

[leveymg]

is melting or vaporization of the rods. Burning off of the zirconium cladding alone would not account for that, as that occurs at a far lower temperature, and contact with water would not cause plutonium particles to "wash off" the rods. The water would become radioactive, but would not have plutonium particles mixed in with it. Similarly, the fumes from burning materials such as other metals or concrete would become radioactive by contact or close proximity, but would not actually contain plutonium.

Only the rods contain plutonium, which are strong alpha particle emitters. The rods, themselves, must have somehow been melted, vaporized, or powdered sufficiently for particles to have migrated any distance away from containment. A sufficiently powerful explosion might do that, as well as the melt-down of rod material, but it would have to be an extremely powerful, hot explosion. Not sure that a hydrogen gas explosion would actually melt or vaporize rod material into sufficiently fine particles that might be thrown into the air and be found a kilometer away. This is all premised upon the assumption that actual particles of Pu have in fact been detected outside the structures, as official and press reports indicate.

Plutonium is not naturally occurring. There is no plutonium milling or processing that occurs at the Fukuyama plant. Therefore, there is no other possible reason that Pu could be found in the soil nearby.

Here's today's AP article that repeats other news reports that Pu has been found at several locations outside containment at the plant: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20110329/D9M8K62G0.html; and, CNN, three different isotopes of Pu found on plant grounds: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/category/world/japan/2011-tsunami/; the samples tested suggest that they are of a type that came from the plant, not atmospheric tests decades ago, http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/03/81702.html