Arnie Gundersen, Fairewinds Associates: "Can Spent Fuel Pools Catch Fire?"
Fairewinds Associates Chief Engineer Arnie GundersenReproduced verbatim from the Fairewinds Associates website: "In this Fairewinds’ feature, Fairewinds Associates Chief Engineer Arnie Gundersen [pictured, left] analyzes a US government national laboratory simulation video that shows nuclear spent fuel rods do catch fire when exposed to air. This simulation video proves Fairewinds’ assertions that nuclear fuel rods can catch fire when exposed to air, and Arnie discusses the ramifications of this phenomena if the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 4 spent fuel pool were to lose cooling water.
The Sandia National Laboratories video in its entirety can be seen here."
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There is more than one way a pool can be drained of its cooling water supply. In 2005-2006, Kevin Kamps, then working at NIRS, along with colleagues Alice Hirt and Michael Keegan, discovered that NRC was aiding and abetting the Palisades atomic reactor in Michigan in covering up a "dangle" of a 107-ton, fully-loaded high-level radioactive waste (HLRW) transfer cask above its HLRW storage pool. Had the cask plunged into the pool's floor or wall, it could have breached it, draining the water away. Palisades' personnel, ignorant about the crane's use, nearly overrode the crane's emergency brake system, flirting with catastrophe. The Detroit Free Press ran a front page article on the cover up and near-miss, based on Kevin's FOIA revelations.
