Just in case you are wondering, this has no chance in hell of succeeding but never in my life have I been wanting to be wrong so badly!
Fro starters we know that these fuel rods have been kept under circumstances which will have greatly reduced their integrity if they are still existing! If not the greatest disaster has already begun and God help us!
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To disabuse some people, including scholars and experts (albeit in different fields, not related to nuclear energy or nuclear power plant technologies, or who simply have not followed the Fukushima nuclear accident much other than catching some soundbites), the following is NOT, I mean NOT, how the fuel assemblies will be removed. (I couldn’t believe it at first, but there were many in Japan for example who thought the removal would be done exactly like this. Maybe they still do…)
And we will take out individual fuel “rods” (and not fuel assemblies) one by one, like this one being taken out of the fuel assembly (casing has been already removed)(from TEPCO, 8/28/2012):
And using the crane in the first photo, and pull the fuel “rods” out of the pool into open air, irradiating the workers regardless of whether the “rods” are new or used, like this (except in this case it was an unused new fuel ASSEMBLY with the casing, not an individual rod)…
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Aotearoa: A Wider Perspective 