I wrote:
> It was a recombination explosion. > So says NHK. As noted here they are now saying this is evidence of a meltdown. NHK broadcast a live press briefing with experts from the reactor at 8:20 pm Japan time. It was one of the most embarrassing technical presentations I have seen. Excuses, vague statements, hemming and hawing. Mumble, mumble, "couldn't connect power cable to emergency generator . . . could not open relief valve" <static from microphone makes it hard to hear, which may be just as well> It looked like a group junior engineers sent out to take the heat for a technical fiasco. Their medical liaison guy had no idea what had happened to the 2 patients in the local hospital who were irradiated. It seemed he had not even heard of the incident. The fuel rods are 4 m long. By 11:00 a.m. EST they were reporting that ~1 m of the fuel rods were probably sticking out of the cooling water. Here is an article in Japanese that Google might translate, with figures that it will not . . . Still may be useful: http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/TKY201103120612.html Figure 2, enlarged: http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/images/TKY201103120618.jpg Heading: Fukushima #1 nuclear reactor, reactor schematic [By the way "Dai-ichi" just means "number 1" "Dai-ni, dai-san" is #2, #3] Numbered Captions: 1. Water level is reduced, exposing about half of the 4 m long fuel rods. 2. Heated to roughly 2800 deg ~ 1200 degrees? [I don't get why it says 2800 ~ 1200 instead of the other way around] 3. Is the core melting? The black label on the right says "cesium detected in outside air" - Jed
