Voice of America has reported that most of the nuclear fuel in the Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1 atomic reactor likely melted down on March 12, less than a day after the 9.0 tremor and 45 foot tall tsunami hit. This admission comes just days after Tepco announced that the Unit 1 reactor pressure vessel has actually been breached by the meltdown.
Reuters has reported that the Japanese federal government has agreed to provide taxpayer funded "extraordinary support" of at least $62 billion to shore up Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) against the risk of bankruptcy. Claims for compensation from households and businesses harmed by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear catastrophe are expected to rise into the tens of billions of dollars. Ratings agency Standard and Poors said "The upper limit of compensation remains unclear at this stage, and we expect Tepco's profitability to remain under significant pressure for a very long period." Japanese financial analysts commented on the meaning of the scheme. Bloomberg/Businessweek also reported on this story, quoting Kazutaka Kirishima, an economics professor at Josai University near Tokyo, as saying “The government should make it clear that consumers will have to shoulder the burden...Whether through increased electricity rates, tax hikes or government bond issues, the public will eventually have to pay.” Bloomberg/Businessweek also reported that Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch in March said Tepco may face claims of as much as 11 trillion yen ($136 billion) if the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl lasts for two years.
Reuters has reported that Greenpeace has collected samples of seaweed -- a staple of the Japanese diet -- off of the coastline near the catastrophically leaking Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that contain five times the "permissible" level of hazardous radioactive iodine-131. "Radioactive contamination is accumulating in the marine ecosystem that provides Japan with a quarter of its seafood, yet the authorities are still doing very little to protect public health," saidd Ike Teuling, a Greenpeace radiation expert. Meanwhile, Tokyo city officials have announced the radioactive contamination levels in sewage, which they are incinerating and then containing if above a certain level.
According to a Reuters news release, Tokyo Electric Power Company confirmed today that Fukushima Dia-Ichi Unit 1 has a hole in its reactor pressure vessel indicating that the nuclear accident is worse than has been previously reported and further complicating efforts to bring multi-unit nuclear accident under control.
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said Thursday the problem became evident when workers finally were able to enter the building and adjust water gauges in the unit. The company previously thought the water was about one meter below the top of the nuclear fuel rods. Instead, it is actually below the rods - leaving them completely exposed." Voice of America
"Tokyo Electric Power Co. said one of the reactor cores at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant is more seriously damaged than previously thought, setting back the utility’s plan to resolve the crisis." Business Week
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UNIT 3 LEAKING INTO OCEAN: TEPCO announced on May 11 evening that a high concentration of cesium-134 was detected in the seawater just outside the silt fence for the water intake area for the Reactor 3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Cesium-134 was found to be 18,000 times the allowable limit for discharge into the ocean. It was the first time the highly contaminated water was found leaking from the Reactor 3. TEPCO carried out an emergency work to stop the leak.
