The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #136314   Message #3135923
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
15-Apr-11 - 04:06 PM
Thread Name: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
Subject: RE: BS: Japan Nuclear plant disaster, 2011
Japan Times today- bad news, but expected.

Melted fuel rod fragments have sunk to the bottom of three reactors at Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) power plant and could broach their pressure vessels if cooling operations are seriously disrupted.
"If too many of the melted fuel fragments puddle at the bottom, they can generate enough concentrated heat to bore a hole in the pressure vessel, which would result in a massive radioactive release to the environment."
This had been speculated on for some time.
"It will take at least two or three months...until the situation of fuel rods is stabilized," said Takashi Sawada, vice chairman of Atomic Energy Society of Japan.
The news report goes on to give measurements of radioactivity in soil and groundwater, taken by Tepco.

In other news, TEPCO has been ordered to pay 50 billion yen as provisional payment to about 50,000 households forced to leave the 30 km nuclear evacuation zone.