Reactor Rods

updated: new images of "rusty objects" found around the plant, may help sort out what might be rod assemblies or not. Images at bottom of the page.

NOTE: info we have had provided states that a rod assembly is 4 metres long and 8 inches by 8 inches wide. Why one is in metric and one in US standard
measurements who knows...

Reactor rods, may not be identical to what is in the reactors but would at least be similar.


Image from NHK supposedly of Fukushima or a similar Mark 1 reactor SFP. It is a bit hard to see in the image but
the rod assemblies seem to have a rusty colored oxidation on them.

We found this "rusty beam" impaled in the building in the early days of the disaster. The initial blurry image taken from a helicopter made it
look like rusty steam from the pipe. Later that week better images came out and we could see it was some sort of rust colored beam type thing.
It looks like it could be a rod assembly. This is the roof beween building 4 and 3. It appears to be impaled into the roof. That could be consistent
with the claims from Tepco that rods were ejected from one of the SFP's during the explosions.

UPDATE: the roof is actually the ground and the object appears to be a piece of heavy equipment.
Lots of distortion and "fog of war" as we figure things out or find new things as we re-review the images.
The benefit of crowd sourcing is figuring these things out with multiple sets of eyes.


This image is "seaside" directly beside reactor 4 that would be in the bottom side of the image.
Some large rust colored beam type things on the ground by reactor 4. A car gives size idea.
There are also some metal rods to the right, not sure if those are plumbing pipe or possibly inner rods
from the rust colore assemblies nearby? Still working on what these are. Have a new
estimated measurement spec for rod assembles of 4 metres. See the mark up on the next image down.

Another view of the possible pile of rusty rod assemblies by reactor 4.
Estimated spec length of rod assemblies: 4 metres = 12 feet
Standard width of truck: 8 feet, 6 inches
Remaining length of a rod after truck width: 3feet 6 inches
Rust colored beams or rod boxes? about 16 feet or about 5.3 metres
If rod assemblies used here are longer it would be possible.
If rod assemblies can not be longer than 4 meters then they are something else.
Someone thought they were interior beams of the reactor floor. Reactor floor trusses etc. are painted
pale yellow.


Another view of the rusty beams or rod assemblies by reactor 4


With some new data and better images, these items that were thought of as rods
are a crane truck of some variety. Notice the hydraulic piston in the left image.
Knowing that the area in question is not roof but ground totally changes the perception.
In the right image it looks like a platform or heavy equipment truck. As we find
new photo info things come more into focus. See the "rod or not" page for more images and info.


Some media images of the loading of MOX fuel into reactor 3.


Rod illustrations taken from the GE BWR reactor manual.
It reads like an instruction manual for a refrigerator....








These rusty beams found seaside might be similar to ones found by reactor 4 that we were unsure about them being rod assemblies earlier on.
Still unable to determine the source of the rusty beams. Also note the metal rods with a brass tip in the lower left corner of the picture. We have
found those all over the complex. On other images there were questions if they were rods or not. On this close up it appears they are not but
what are they? They seem to have not been connected to anything or broke at their connections easily as all found are unconnected to other objects.