Ok. I owe you a proper answer.
Yes.
After writing my essay “Radioactive Hell on Earth”—actually I wanted to change that title to “Fukushima on Steroids”—I see Christina Consolo’s essay “Fukushima is Falling Apart”: ( http://endthelie.com/2012/04/21/fukushima-is-falling-apart-are-you-ready/#axzz1sjwfD6ve )
Are you ready—it is becoming clear that we, our children and our entire civilization is hanging by a thread. It is a very sorry thing to report that we have literally shot ourselves in the foot with a big nuclear shotgun full of radioactive particles of the worst conceivable kind.
It has taken a year but finally “a U.S. Senator finally got off his ass and went to Japan to see what is going on over there. What he saw was horrific. Reactor No. 4 building is on the verge of collapsing.
( http://enenews.com/breaking-us-senator-issues-press-release-on-no-4-spent-fuel-pool-warns-situation-worse-than-reported-after-tour-of-fukushima-plant-urges-japanese-to-accept-international-help )
Seismicity standards rate the building at a zero, meaning even a small earthquake could send it into a heap of rubble. And sitting at the top of the building, in a pool that is cracked, leaking, and precarious even without an earthquake, are 1,565 fuel rods.”
If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain, this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire that could wipe out most of the northern hemisphere; certainly it would be a massive civilization-breaking event.
After an onsite tour of what remains of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear facilities, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a senior member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, sent a letter to Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki saying, “The scope of damage to the plants and to the surrounding area was far beyond what I expected.
The precarious status of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear units and the risk presented by the enormous inventory of radioactive materials and spent fuel in the event of further earthquake threats should be of concern to all and a focus of greater international support and assistance.”
1,565 fuel rods translates into 460 tons of nuclear fuel stored in pool in a barely intact building on its third and fourth floors. If the storage pool breaks and runs dry, the nuclear fuel inside will overheat and explode.
The worst-case scenario drawn up by the government includes not only the collapse of the No. 4 reactor pool, but also the disintegration of spent-fuel rods from all the plant’s other reactors.
The wall of the south side is falling apart at reactor No. 4 and Dr. Helen Caldicott said she would evacuate her family from Boston if it did.
Consolo says, “If this pool collapses, as Senator Wyden is now saying too, we would face a mass extinction event from the release of radiation in those rods. This may be the most important thing you ever pay attention to for the sake of your family, friends, your neighbors, every one you know and meet, all ofhumanity.”
“Preliminary reports of soil contamination are starting to come in from the USGS, who has seemed reluctant to share this information. Los Angeles, California, Portland, Oregon and Boulder, Colorado so far have the highest radioactive particle contamination out of the entire U.S.
Iodine, cesium, strontium, plutonium, uranium, and a host of other fission products have been coming directly from Japan to the west coast for thirteen months. Reports in the past week indicate the pollen in southern California is radioactive now too, and it is flying around, and if you live there and go outside, you are breathing it in. And so are your children,” continued Consolo.
http://theintelhub.com/2012/04/27/fukushima-hanging-by-a-thread/
Here's the official IAEA status report (useless--no mention of earthquake hazard or MOX):
TEPCO of the inside of the Unit 3 Spent Fuel Pool
With the discovery by TEPCO of part of the fuel exchange machine weighing approximately
35 tons having fallen into the Spent Fuel Pool and on top of some the storage racks, the
IAEA has provided some additional information based on our assessment of the images and
video footage released by TEPCO.
Our assessment team has reviewed the latest videos and photos from the TEPCO
underwater survey of the Unit 3 spent fuel pool. From our review, we can make the following
observations:
1. The videos and photos don’t provide conclusive information on the integrity and stability of
fuel assemblies, and racks. Additionally, there is no footage that provides a view of the
general pool structure;
2. The pool appears to contain a lot of light gauge metal (likely roofing or siding) and some
heavier-gauge material, which may be structural material from the building;
3. The pool contains quite a bit of concrete rubble, on the fuel assembly locations. Given the
areal density of the rubble and if the photos and videos are representative of the over-all
picture, we would expect most, if not all, of the rack positions to contain some rubble;
4. An additional photo (Figure 1) suggests that the rebar visible in the videos could have
come from some large concrete structural members;
5. From the videos, photos and an additional photo (Figure 2), the refuelling crane (referred
to as a “fuel exchange machine”) appears to include some extremely heavy components
under the water. It appears that this machine has lost its original position and may be leaning
on fuel racks. While there was no visible catastrophic damage to the racks, they may have
been deformed as a result. It is also not known if the rack sites impacted by the refuelling
crane contain spent fuel which could be subject to deformation;
6. We expect that the debris (rubble, etc.) in the storage racks would cause substantial
problems for any subsequent defueling operation (sticking or jamming the assemblies when
they are lifted). This could lead to significant damage compromising the fuel integrity if proper
care is not taken and will likely severely complicate the de-fuelling operation. Maintaining
pool clarity during de-fuelling operation will also be a challenge;
7. There is also the very real possibility that the fuelling machine has caused deformation to
the rack (or the fuel assemblies within) to make de-fuelling even more challenging;
8. The first step to any de-fuelling operation would the removal of all substantial debris from
the top of the fuel racks, including the heavy components;
9. From the videos we would expect fuel damage from the material that has fallen into the
pool. At least from the fuelling machine, and probably the building structural material;
10. An analysis of the cesium isotopic data to November 2011 does not yield evidence of any
large failure of stored spent fuel; and
11. It is impossible to determine the state of corrosion due to salt water from these videos
and photos.
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/fukushima/statusreport270412.pdf
Here's the TEPCO status report (of course...no problemo):
http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/nu/fukushima-np/index-e.html
My personal assessment. TEPCO and the governments of the world are lying to us about the status of the plant and the risk. At the same time, of course, those opposed to the status quo and the 'prepper' community are exaggerating the risk to the point of absurdity.
So...what to do? If you have the money, it might be a good time to explore real estate in the southern hemisphere. If not, buy gold, food and ammunition.
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