"Tepco said work was ongoing to connect pipes to outside electrical supplies to pump seawater to circulation systems at No. 5 and 6, and the operation should be completed Wednesday."

Which means that the utility has given up on salvaging Units 5 and 6 as well.

Utility spokesmen were also quoted on either MSNBC or CNN (I forget which) as saying it might be as long as two weeks before they were able to turn on the electricity within all the reactor units. They need to be sure the hydrogen gas is completely vented (and not continuing to be produced), that the electrical circuits still function or can be bypassed, and that the various electrical motors still function or can be replaced.

I do wonder what level of review will be coordinated by the NRC to assess how our 104 nuclear power plants would function with a similar loss of pumping capacity because of earthquake, tsunami, or other reason. It seems likely to me that the spent fuel pools are every bit as vulnerable as has been proven in the Fukushima-1 nuclear complex.

Charley Noble