Art Bell interviews Dr. Michio Kaku on Dec 15, 2003 [Part 4]

Detroit Edison sulfate sodium cool Chlorine is quite volatile is a lack of Water the sodium huh what happened was Eighty silicon ’i’m a piece of metal About the size of a beer can Became dislodged a cooling system jammed The cooling system the reactor Overheated as a consequence and began to Melt and then radiation alarms were sent Off they immediately stop the chain Reaction and for days they were Wondering what is the state of a melted Core they had never seen a commercial Reactor with a melted core before and so They simply cross their fingers They literally cross their fingers and Hope they wouldn’t become supercritical Huh it was 24/7 rich highly enriched Uranium today we use only three percent Enriched uranium by the way because I’m Is 90% enriched that coziest have gone It might have gone there was speculation That party brought they flew in top Flight scientists to try to recreate how Much melted fuel that was in that Reactor to see whether the melted fuel Would combine to give you critical mass Last be overdramatic the day we almost Lost the Troy work prettiest would it Have been that bad it could have been Bad because of two things one melting Could have started up again In which case would have a sodium Explosion which is quite possible Saudi

Bowl explodes on contact that’s like Water sodium explosion risk the whole Reactor apart or a small bomb that is Critical Super criticality would be attained with Melted fuel and then it was it was it Was a heat up and then again another Soaring explosions the rest of reactor Apart anyway with the disc was they got A long tube along to in they sent it Into the reactor with a small TV camera Attached to the end of it they Autographed the bottom this is the first Time they’ve ever done this by the way Just everything was by the seat of your Pants on yes never done this before Putting shooting a TV camera right into The Corp of northern reactor and you Know they’re exactly they were Evacuation plans so that way large for Portions of Detroit was very realized Opposing explosion more Telling the people of Detroit what was Going on at the time there’s nothing I Got the file from the mid day Regulatory Commission one years ago and there was a Letter from the Union of the United Auto Workers Union saying that some of the Union brothers of her that there was a Massive incident at the reactor could You clarify and the answer is also there In the file the answers is all nothing Happened Oh yes we had America’s person back in

The mid-1960s a commercial reactor that Spun out of control In which case portions of Detroit man Have had to be evacuated uh-huh and you Can do it for me one today by the way What he was developed in in a breathing Reactor it’s called heart nuclear the Hardest of the nuclear reactors our Breeder reactors they are freon very Enriched fuel that was the Japanese and The French are getting so much criticism Because they ship on breeder fuel by by Ship so look at hijacks the fuel and Conceivably build a small bomb yes part Of the fuel yes the fuel is highly Enriched like I said Fermi was 20 Percent enriched an atomic bomb is 90% Enriched mercial reactors are three Percent enriched and so they ship highly Enriched plutonium in react and uranium Fuel rods on both and so green paste and Many environmentalists have stated that This is a disaster waiting to happen is Someone hijack the shipment of regional In the United States it was canceled the Clinch River was an experimental be the Reactors build after the commercial one Melted all right how many how many Breeder reactors operate in the world Well in the United States Clinch River Was canceled by President Carter he Canceled in sugar realizing that it was Very experimental a to miss two leaders Had noted

First one he br1 melton 250 the second One a commercial one melted in the Sixteenth year and Jimmy Carter then Said enough is enough but I’m still not Here but I mean worldwide the French had The Phoenix a breeder reactor and in Fact there was one excited Environmentalist laying the mezuzah at The Phoenix just to show how vulnerable The the Phoenix reaction super Phoenix Are to to terrorism and because the fuel Is highly enriched the ship right Through commercial lanes and people are Very afraid that these reactors could Set up as well in Japan at the manju in France it’s the Phoenix and again these Operate an highly enriched fuel and they Can in fact sustain super criticality Act that’s rising easily so there are Two of them several that are in the Commercial domain other other small Countries may be doing this experimental II but those system was famous the super Phoenix in France and the manju in Japan That’s amazing I have no idea these Things were going on I thought it was All just in the lab that they were not Commercial was not commercial Application yet for breeders I don’t Know why I believe that that idea when One in Japan is still quite ongoing However the point here is that these These types of hot rodders they’re the Cowboys and they build it and things and

They want to commercialize it and put Them in people’s backyard even those Basic basics meltdown in basic super Cannon to the criticality tests have not Been done on these moneyness every Accurate you know we say the answer the Crash we have lots of experience on Crash airplanes we have very little Experience at crash reactors right and At the consequence were these reactors Spin out of control If the seat of your pants actually I’ve Seen a couple of 16 minutes pieces on Chernobyl and They’re pretty grim I mean they built This district toppika surrounded and That appears to be according to the Course I’ve seen deteriorating and I’ve Had some pretty cleaning things every Time it rains every time advancing here Water seeps into the concrete Sarcophagus and moderates the neutrons That they’re called and you can ask you See radiation levels rise it’s actually In a working reactor and totally melted Form rising and falling with the Rainfall what’s the deal with Chernobyl I mean how long are we gonna have to Deal with this damn mess anyway perhaps Centuries and you know it’s still Nothing the answer hasn’t stopped at all The laws of physics keep on going are Very much for its melting through the Concrete and in a certain point you’ll

Go right to the country then what and Then you’ll get groundwater and then you Know where there’s a concern that could Cause a scene explosion and like I said You can actually see Levi levels rise Every time it rains and water seeps into The into the fair competence of the Geometry of the core is unknown we do Not know what the geometries of cork is So just like it’s Remmy weapon we have Melted fuel in an unknown geometrical Configuration you can concentrate it Concentrates in one area you could have Super criticality not like a hiroshima Bomb but more like what happened to Lewis flattened and the hairy dangling In 45 and 46 and then you would have Heating then perhaps the steam explosion Should blow the whole thing apart and so This is something of that is still of Concern that reactor is unstable all Right assuming it does go on and no down Speaking out renoble to the groundwater And you get a steam explosion What kind of magnitude and results from That would we expect this would be had a Traffic in the sense that all the Fission products all then wait the Nuclear waste within be shot into the Sky and then it’s fine duck The winds within blow it downwind and Contaminate large areas now the greatest Nuclear accident of all time before Channel Hubble actually took place in

Russia under in the 1950s in sight in The Ural Mountains it was the greatest Dislike it has to be of all time and It’s too much stuff why we all these Accidents have been hostile what Happened there well in the area called Christian near the village of Connelly And there was a plutonium dump Stalin Had all the excess plutonium from a Nuclear program bumped into this one Fine phone and apparently again super Criticality was achieved and boiling Occurred within vehicle 20 atomic and an Explosion took place indeed the lid blew The lid right off the container and Klien in liquid aerosol form shot into The atmosphere and the CIA knew that a Big one had happened in Russia yes Because all of a sudden in the Literature admitted remember music Reports of this I that’s right as CIA Was on to it what happened was in the Journal I to the journal the Russians Were all of a sudden writing reports was A transport of plutonium through you Know aqueous environment yeah That is contaminated Lake right and People said why would the Russian Contaminates it on Lake that’s right the Podium this is outrageous