Here's another excerpt from a NIRS press release from yesterday:

UPDATE, 3:30 pm, Wednesday, April 6, 2011. The New York Times has an important front-page story today on a still-unreleased U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission assessment that indicates the situation at Fukushima remains extremely serious, that some of the measures Tepco and the Japanese government have taken have caused unanticipated repercussions and new problems—in particular new stresses placed on the containments that places their ability to withstand earthquake aftershocks in doubt, and ongoing concerns about the possibility of more hydrogen explosions at the site.

The article also states, "The document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools above the reactors were blown "up to one mile from the units," and that pieces of highly radioactive material fell between two units and had to be "bulldozed over," presumably to protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed."

And the article adds that the NRC believes there was a hydrogen explosion at Unit 4's fuel pool, which caused major radiation releases. NIRS notes that we still have not seen a single radiation reading—official or unofficial--from inside the evacuation zone.

(SNIP!)

Ugh!

Charley Noble