Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 6

AJE's Dan Nolan explains what's going on at Fukushima Daiichi.



It's the second part of the video that should have you worried:  the reactor is contained somewhat (but still a partial meltdown would be terrible.)  But the stored spent fuel rods submerged in rooftop pools to keep them cool are the more immediate danger.

Tokyo Electric Power Company officials announced on Tuesday evening that they would consider using helicopters in an attempt to douse with cold water a boiling rooftop storage pond for spent uranium fuel rods. The rods are still radioactive and potentially as hot and dangerous as the fuel rods inside the reactors if not kept submerged in water.

“The only ideas we have right now are using a helicopter to spray water from above, or inject water from below,” a power company official said at a news conference. “We believe action must be taken by tomorrow or the day after.”

Hydrogen gas bubbling up from chemical reactions set off by the hot fuel rods produced a powerful explosion on Tuesday morning that blew a 26-foot-wide hole in the side of reactor No. 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A fire there may have been caused by machine oil in a nearby facility, inspectors from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission said, according to an American official.

Concern remained high about the storage ponds at that reactor and at reactors 5 and 6. All three of those reactors at the plant, 140 miles northeast of Tokyo, were not operating on Friday afternoon when an offshore earthquake with a magnitude now estimated at 9.0 suddenly shook the site. A tsunami with waves up to 30 feet high rolled into the northeast Japanese coastline minutes later, swamping the plant. 

If those rods overheat, the potential for a widespread release of radioactive material into the atmosphere is extremely high, and this is completely separate from any of the six reactors at the plant losing containment.  Word is reactors 5 and 6 are heating up too, potentially meaning that all six reactors at the Fukushima plant are damaged and could be in various stages of a partial meltdown.


And it seems the worse-case scenario continues to play out.

Two workers are missing after Tuesday's explosion at one of the reactors at a crippled Japanese nuclear plant, the country's nuclear safety agency said.

The agency did not identify the missing workers, but said they were in the turbine area of the No.4 reactor at the Fukushima nuclear plant, which was damaged by last Friday's earthquake and tsunami.

Agency official also told a news conference there was a crack in the roof of the reactor building.

Reuters now quoting NHK World that Reactor 4 is now on fire again after the explosion today.   This can't be good.  It's on fire because the first reactor 4 fire was never fully extinguished.