Japan No 2 core melted through reactor vessel: Rep. Markey - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel, Democratic Congressman Edward Markey told a hearing on the nuclear disaster on Wednesday.

"I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the core of Unit Two has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel," said Markey, a prominent nuclear critic in the House of Representatives.

but that is impossible!!

haha they updated the story now. Reuters needs to learn how to report:

NRC says not clear that Japan reactor has melted vessel - Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top official from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said on Wednesday it was not clear that Japan's Fukushima No. 2 nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel.

Earlier, Democratic lawmaker Edward Markey told a House of Representatives hearing on the nuclear disaster that the NRC had told him the core had melted through the vessel.

"That's not clear to us, nor is it clear to us that the reactor has penetrated the vessel," said Martin Virgilio, deputy executive director for reactor and preparedness programs at the NRC.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapc...ex.html?hpt=T2

sounds like the leak has stopped or slowed significantly?

yeah that's been stopped, but they are watching for other areas that may leak.

7.4 earthquake and new Tsunami alert.

shut up jomo

hory ****, japan wants to sink.

uhh why?

Mother Earth is very mad at the japs

has aquaman been alerted?

japan = atrantis

JoMo, do you think with all the radiation, japan is only a few years away from REAL tentacle porn?

With the way they are pumping radiated water into the sea, it's a possibility.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3NlJfIkcy8

He's busy elsewhere, Seaman and Swallow are coming.

Japan may raise nuke accident severity level to highest 7 from 5

Japan may raise nuke accident severity level to highest 7 from 5 | Kyodo News

The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan released a preliminary calculation Monday saying that the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been releasing up to 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour at some point after a massive quake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan on March 11.

The disclosure prompted the government to consider raising the accident's severity level to 7, the worst on an international scale, from the current 5, government sources said. The level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale has only been applied to the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe.

The current provisional evaluation of 5 is at the same level as the Three Mile Island accident in the United States in 1979.

According to an evaluation by the INES, level 7 accidents correspond with a release into the external environment radioactive materials equal to more than tens of thousands terabecquerels of radioactive iodine 131. One terabecquerel equals 1 trillion becquerels.

Haruki Madarame, chairman of the commission, which is a government panel, said it has estimated that the release of 10,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials per hour continued for several hours.

The commission says the release has since come down to under 1 terabecquerel per hour and said that it is still examining the total amount of radioactive materials released.

The commission also released a preliminary calculation for the cumulative amount of external exposure to radiation, saying it exceeded the yearly limit of 1 millisieverts in areas extending more than 60 kilometers to the northwest of the plant and about 40 km to the south-southwest of the plant.

It encompasses the cities of Fukushima, Date, Soma, Minamisoma, and Iwaki, which are all in Fukushima Prefecture, and some areas including the town of Hirono in the prefecture.

Within a 20-km exclusion zone set by the government, the amount varied from under 1 millisieverts to 100 millisieverts or more, and in the 20-30 km radius ring where residents are asked to stay indoors, it came to under 50 millisieverts.

The commission used the System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information to calculate the spread of radiation.

ya, makes sense

the anti nuke critic moron congressman jumping the gun to rail against a technology he simply can not understand

Looks like they are going to change it to a 7 tomorrow:

Japan to raise Fukushima crisis level to worst
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/12_05.html

The Japanese government's nuclear safety agency has decided to raise the crisis level of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant accident from 5 to 7, the worst on the international scale.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency made the decision on Monday. It says the damaged facilities have been releasing a massive amount of radioactive substances, which are posing a threat to human health and the environment over a wide area.

The agency used the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale, or INES, to gauge the level. The scale was designed by an international group of experts to indicate the significance of nuclear events with ratings of 0 to 7.

On March 18th, one week after the massive quake, the agency declared the Fukushima trouble a level 5 incident, the same as the accident at Three Mile Island in the United States in 1979.

Level 7 has formerly only been applied to the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986 when hundreds of thousands of terabecquerels of radioactive iodine-131 were released into the air. One terabecquerel is one trillion becquerels.

The agency believes the cumulative amount from the Fukushima plant is less than that from Chernobyl.

Officials from the agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission will hold a news
onference on Tuesday morning to explain the change of evaluation.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 05:47 +0900 (JST)

they should just nuke the nuclear power plant

its the only way to be sure

I was reading where they increased the evacuation zone around it.

As always, the public is informed well after they can action on any safety measures.

is everything back to normal yet guys?

errything hockey

uh, no. not yet

yeah, you pretty much knew **** was ****ed up when the first thing they did at one of the first press conferences was apologize, then avoid all questions about how serious it was.

oh god. the mutations are already happening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEpj6m_hooI

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wi.../fukushima.jpg

:rofl:

Don't worry guys, nuclear roombas will take care of the problem

"At the plant on Sunday, workers used remote-controlled robots to record radiation, water and temperature data in the building that houses reactor No. 3. Photos released by the utility showed the devices, provided by the U.S. company iRobot, opening the inner door to the reactor and entering the darkened building."

seriously. we'll get a few noombas going - reprogram them for better efficiency, and then go to work. when we come back everything is going to be ok - **** lgbr might even start posting again.

They're sending in the robots

Robot enters crippled power plant | The Sun |News

took them long enough.

so has japan become a nuclear wasteland yet?

and when will the radiation plumes reach the east coast of the US?

WTF?

why did they have to train other people to use the damn things instead of contracting the work to someone who knows how to use it in the first place?

http://www.bgr.bund.de/DE/Themen/Sei...ty=default.gif

radioactive **** is everywhere, thanks Japan.

that's a whole lot of floating cancer right there.

The Japanese engineers just couldn't get around the concept of using robots for something other than doing stupid dances or having sex with.

:lol:

TEPCO: Putting the **** You in Fukushima.

"Giant polyester covers will soon be placed around the damaged reactor buildings at Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex to help contain the release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, the plant operator said Friday. Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) will install the first cover at the No. 1 reactor, the focus of recent stabilization efforts, starting next month."

"Workers will erect a steel framework and place a giant polyester tent-like cover around the reactor building. Similar covers will be placed around units No. 3 and 4. The work is expected to be completed by the end of the year."

Here ya go:

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defau...ircus_tent.jpg