Update: TEPCo began removing rods on Monday. The first rod assembly from Unit #4 was transferred to a cask around 4pm. The company plans to remove 22 assemblies or fill one cask through Monday night beginning with unused ones because they are less fragile. TEPCo admitted on November 15th that there are more damaged fuel assemblies in Unit #1 cooling pool; the damage occurred long before the March 2011 disaster. TEPCo says it notified the government of the condition. News reports from Fukushima are typically late in arriving outside of Japan.
{17.11.13}Arnie Gunderson of Fairwinds.org, and a former nuclear industry engineer, discusses the perils of the fuel rod transfer process at Fukushima Unit #4 using company-produced animated propaganda to highlight the misleading information disseminated by TEPCo. US Person agrees with Gunderson that the continuing disaster is beyond the resources of any one company. Clean up of the highly contaminated site will be in the billions of dollars. Clean up cost projection is now at $10 billion, and radiation levels in some hot spots near the facility are five to ten times higher than the surroundings.
Spent fuel removal looks like child's' play in the company cartoon, but the reality is far more dangerous. The removal process is no longer computer controlled. The rod bundles are deformed and full of building debris which increases the likelihood of a stuck fuel assembly. There may not be enough boron left in the surrounding cladding to prevent criticality. Breaking a single brittle fuel rod assembly would be disastrous. Gunderson explained to Reuters, "The problem with fuel pool criticality (uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction) is that you can't stop it. There are no control rods to control it. The spent fuel pool cooling system is designed only to remove decay heat, not heat from an ongoing nuclear reaction." Why is this video featured on True America when the stricken reactor is Japanese? Simple: Unit #4 reactor is American designed and fallout knows no national boundaries.