Quote Originally Posted by smokey the elder View Post
I don't understand why they don't dump sand on the fuel rods. The heat from the rods would melt the sand, vitrifying it into glass. This is how spent fuel is treated already; this would be in effect "abandoning it in place". Maybe the little water that is there would pressurize and now you'd have radioactive glass going sky high? I dunno.

the problem with nuke plants is that sooner or later the small probability but severe risk profile will catch up with you.
The problem is, getting close enough to do that with the radiation that they are emitting. Eventually they will probably encase it all in concrete, like they did with Chernobyl, I hope they can rig some cranes and chutes and start doing that soon. This is Japan, where they make amazing robots - I am surprised they don't have robots they can send in, instead of human workers.

The whole area needn't be a dead zone - people moved back to Hiroshima 6 months after the bombing, and that has been highly studied of course. But before anything, they need to control those reactors, which is looking less and less likely.