Jack-

I was assuming that the Russian radioactive waste processing ship would only be dealing with low-level radioactively contaminated water. With regard to the highly radioactive water under the reactors, I believe they intend to store them in place. It's true that the bricks produced by the ship would be very radioactive but still not classified as "high-level nuclear waste"; that designation is reserved for spent fuel and reactor components. I realize I'm shifting from the absurdity of this situation to better defining what we're dealing with.

The Russian ship is a helpful asset, assuming that it really works. My math exercise above, however, demonstrated that it would take a lot of such ships to get the job done in say less than a year.

Q-

"U. S. government engineers helping with the crisis in Japan are warning of fresh threats"

That's very interesting information, and quite appropriately alarming. There is still a major chance of another hydrogen explosion or even a criticality event.

Charley Noble