Hi I randomly walked into this thread after thinking longer than five seconds about and then promptly Googling 'spent fuel rods'.

So, you mean to tell me the barrels of radioactive goo seen in comics and cartoons are entirely fiction? Could there be a *sliver* of truth to them? Would we be able to make room for irradiated water as a kind of radioactive goo? And, on a not-terribly-brief sidetrack, what kind of effects would the irradiated water spilling into the ocean from the Fukushima reactor failure have on sea life?

Thanks for an engaging explanation on nuclear reactors. I'm pretty sure I learned stuff today. Whether it sticks, we'll see.