On 07/09/2016 09:47, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

The whole point of storing spent fuel rods in ponds is because fission
is going on.

Rubbish.
The stuff is stored in ponds while decay is going on.
If fission was going on the rods would never decay to the point where
they were safe to process.

While a few meters of water is enough to stop the decay radiation it
isn't going to stop the neutrons from killing the workers.

I suggest you look at the difference between decay and fission before
harry points it out.