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I reviewed the Bloomberg article and it does raise serious questions about the integrity of reactor Unit 4 after manufacturing errors were covered up:

"Warped Walls

The (reactor) vessel had sagged so that its height and width differed by more than 34 millimeters, meaning it should have been scrapped, according to nuclear regulations. Rather than sacrifice years of work and risk the company's survival, Tanaka's boss asked him to reshape the vessel so that no-one would know it had ever been damaged. Tanaka had been working as an engineer for the company's nuclear reactor division and was known for his programming skills."

However, that reactor was off-line for refueling during the current earthquake and tsunami and its manufacturing flaws could not have played a role in the current disaster.

Unit 4's nuclear fuel rods were shifted, prior to the event, to the spent fuel pool where there was indeed a major problem created by its cooling system being knocked out by the event. It's likely that after the spent fuel rods were exposed there was at least a partial meltdown which triggered another hydrogen explosion and fire.

Charley Noble