Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 31

Some two and a half months after the earthquake and tsunami ravaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, TEPCO officials are only now admitting that all three reactors are in various phases of partial nuclear meltdown, not just reactor #1.

The operator of Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant on Tuesday said it believed fuel had partially melted inside three reactors, as long suspected by experts.


Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said new readings on water gauges indicated that the fuel had dropped to the bottom of the containment vessels of units two and three, matching its earlier assessment of unit one.

In all three reactors, relatively low temperatures indicated that the fuel was now mostly covered by water that has been pumped into the vessels, meaning there was no immediate threat of an uncontrolled full meltdown.

"It is highly possible that (partial) meltdowns have occurred at reactors two and three," a TEPCO spokesman said as the firm released its latest analysis of data from the plant after the March 11 quake and tsunami.

"Most of the fuel is believed to have fallen to the bottom (of pressure vessels that contain fuel rods) as has happened in reactor one," he said. "They are now being cooled and are in stable conditions."

Of course if there are any containment vessel leaks like in reactor #1, clean upbecomes all that more difficult without risking additional lives.  But if it's taken nearly 75 days to get the basic truth from TEPCO officials, how long will it take to deal with the much more complicated reality of nuclear radiation having rendered parts of northern Japan dangerous for decades, and that the fact that radiation is still leaking into the environment?