Logged in and was suprised not to see a diary here on this yet. Apparently, even Daily Kos is being uber-obsessive about a certain congressman's junk. In any event, if you want something else to send tingles down your spine, consider this:
The nuclear fuel in three of the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has melted through the base of the pressure vessels and is pooling in the outer containment vessels, according to a report by the Japanese government.
The findings of the report, which has been given to the International Atomic Energy Agency, were revealed by the Yomiuri newspaper, which described a "melt-through" as being "far worse than a core meltdown" and "the worst possibility in a nuclear accident."
A spokesman for Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the company is presently revising the road-map for bringing the plant under control, including the time required to achieve cold shutdown of the reactors.
In a best-case scenario, the company says it will be able to achieve that by October, although that may have to be revised in light of the report.
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The experts have also yet to come up with a plan for decommissioning the ruined plant....
So, October was the BEST case scenario BEFORE we learned this new information. From my gulf-state perspective, it looks like Japan just got their version of an oil spill disaster that just goes on and on and on with no end in sight. More detail at the link, obviously.
I will leave it to the article and those more familiar with the physics of nuclear meltdowns and melt-throughs to relay what are likely to be the full consequences of this 'worst case scenario in a nuke accident' being realized.
Here's to Rachel Maddow hosting some nuclear physics professors again to help explain what this all means, physics and health-wise on her show in the coming week. But for some political context for the new report, there's this:
The report comes after Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency doubled its initial estimate of the amount of radioactivity that was released from the plant in the days immediately after it was destroyed by the tsunami.
In early April, the agency said some 370,000 terabecquerels escaped from the facility. It now believes that figure was 770,000 terabecquerels. One terabecquerel is a trillion becquerels, the standard measure of radiation, while the permissible level of iodine-131 for vegetables and fish is 2,000 becquerels per kilogram.
Combined, the two announcements will raise further questions about the true scale of the problem at the plant and the measures being taken to get the situation under control.
"The recovery effort at the plant is likely to be more difficult as they will not be able to use their previous plan to contain the fuel," Yoshiaki Oka, a professor of nuclear science at Tokyo's Waseda University told The Daily Telegraph.