World Holds Its Breath as TEPCO Starts Fuel Rod Removal at Fukushima Unit 4Chris Carrington The assemblies are 13 foot long tubes that contain pellets of uranium. There are serious fears that some of the rods may have been damaged during the earthquake or tsunami, or during the explosions that rocked unit 4 in the days following those events. The rods will have to be moved in water-filled containers and is critical as exposing them to air causes the rods to overheat. This would result in an unstoppable nuclear chain reaction. Contamination in such an event would be widespread, spreading around the globe. TEPCO has recently admitted that one of the assemblies containing between 50 and 70 rods of highly radioactive spent fuel was damaged in 1982. It was bent out of shape during a transfer. They have said that this rack wont be lifted in this phase of the process. Decomissioning of the plant is set to take decades, and experts from around the world have expressed grave doubts that TEPCO is up to the job. The Japanese has so far rejected offers of help from the international community. Read more Chris Carrington is a writer, researcher and lecturer with a background in science, technology and environmental studies. Chris is an editor for The Daily Sheeple, where this first appeared.Wake the flock up! 