TEPCO: reactor damage includes holes
The operator of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says data analyses suggest damage to its reactors may have caused cracks and openings in the reactor containment vessels equivalent to a 10-centimeter hole.
Reactors 1 through 3 at the plant suffered nuclear fuel meltdowns after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. This is likely to have created holes and cracks at the bottom of the pressure vessels protecting the reactor cores and damaged the containment vessels.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
Not one. Not two. Three meltdowns.
The quake was March 11. Here it is May and they finally reveal three meltdowns.
How long before they admit the evacuees can never return home?
How long before we’re told where the hell all that leaking radiation is heading?
This news was buried at the bottom of Drudge. Even he has lost interest in it.
So how will we know?
Even in this Internet Age, it seems stories can still be buried and forgotten.
Previously here:
TEPCO Finally Admits Fukushima Meltdown
Fukushima Was A Disaster From Day One
I Want You To Get Mad!
Japan: 7.4 Quake
Another Reminder Of How Things Change
Japan Quake: One Week Later
Japan Earthquakes
Japan Acts As Usual
Japan: Atomic Bomb Scale Of Destruction
Devastation In Japan
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
Someone should do a survey of all the TEPCO shills online telling the world that there was nothing to be alarmed about. My favorite (if that is the correct word) was the supply chain professor from MIT who essentially said that the Japanese were infallible and everything would be just fine.
The other part about this that is maddening is the apologists who claim that this was impossible to prevent. They claim that the earthquake and tsunami were unprecedented and therefore couldn’t have been planned for. What they don’t seem to grasp is that is an argument against using nuclear power, not an argument for using nuclear power. How can people not see that?
If engineering can’t even prevent a disaster from a natural event that has been witnessed many times around the globe, what happens when something truly unprecedented occurs? We’ve been using commercial nuclear power for less than 60 years. Already we’ve seen two extremely dangerous and probably unrecoverable nuclear accidents. Only 60 years. I just can’t understand why this doesn’t frighten the nuclear power advocates.
The advocates have money. That’s all they care about.
I read this interesting interview with a former Dai-1 Plant Manager a few days ago on the IEEE Spectrum website. His statements make it very clear that the Japanese were not prepared for this, and that appropriate safety measures were not in place. Further it seems that some maintenance on the 4th reactor meant that lots of core fuel was being stored in the spent fuel pools, which aggravated the problems and may have been the reason for the fires.
Tellingly, he avoids the question of whether the other reactors in Japan are safe. He says they’ll be safe after modifications are made!