ABSTRACT
As disaster unfolded at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, much of the commentary at the time involved the threats posed by radioactivity present in the plant’s reactor cores. However, some observers noted that used nuclear fuel stored in water-filled pools at the plant posed equally severe, or possibly greater, risks (Bradsher and Tabuchi 2011; Parenti 2011).1 Although the worst possibilities involving the used fuel did not come to pass, the disaster brought new attention to this intensely radioactive product of nuclear power production.
