Fukushima: Chunks Of Nuclear Fuel Appear To Have Entered Inner Containment Chambers, Or Drywell, Causing Damage

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AND NOW: Fukushima Reactor No. 1 DRYWELL At 192 Sieverts PER HOUR!!!


More Melted Fuel At Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Plant Uncovered During UN Probe (Huffington Post, May 24, 2011):

TOKYO — A major international mission to investigate Japan’s flooded, radiation-leaking nuclear complex began as new information suggested that nuclear fuel had mostly melted in two more reactors in the early days after the March 11 tsunami.

That would mean that all three troubled reactors at the plant have had their cores mostly melted down.

The team of U.N. nuclear experts met with Japanese officials Tuesday and planned to visit the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in coming days to investigate the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 and assess efforts to stabilize the complex by Tokyo’s self-declared deadline of early next year.

Meanwhile, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., released a new analysis suggesting that fuel rods in the plant’s Units 2 and 3 mostly melted during the early days of the crisis, which had been suspected but not confirmed.

In addition, some chunks of the fuel appeared to have entered the inner containment chambers, or drywell, causing some damage.

That suggests that the severity of the accident was greater than officials have acknowledged. TEPCO announced similar findings last week about Unit 1.

The new revelations indicate that earlier official assessments may have been too optimistic, said Goshi Hosono, director of Japan’s nuclear crisis task force.

“We should have made a more cautious damage estimate based on a worse scenario,” he said.

Fuel in three of the plant’s six reactors started melting just hours after the March 11 tsunami knocked out cooling systems, prompting huge releases of radiation into the atmosphere – about one-tenth of the radiation released from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, according to a government estimate.

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