So this morning in our newspapers, TEPCO acknowledged that it was highly likely that all three reactors, Units 1-3, had begun melting down within hours of the earthquake and tsunami. So far there's no update on what might have been happening in the spent fuel pools during this time but at least the one associated with Unit 4 likely had a meltdown.

I thought the 8-hour back-up batteries were supposed to provide power to the pumps even if the back-up generators were knocked out by the tsunami.

Charley Noble