Fuel At 3 Reactors At Fukushima Likely Melting

There were earlier reports that the fuel rods at the No. 2 reactor for over 2 hours, now it seems all three reactors are in trouble again.

There are no reports that the fuel has escaped the reactor or that there's been any damage to the containment vessels or buildings.

Still, radiation measurements are twice as high as they've seen before. That doesn't mean they are dangerous levels, just higher relative to what they've measured to date.

Just saw on FNC that the USN is moving the USS Ronald Regan away from the area near the plants. Apparently some aircrew and Marines delivering relief supplies received some minimal contamination.

The U.S. 7th Fleet has temporarily repositioned its ships and aircraft away from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant after detecting low level contamination in the air and on its aircraft operating in the area. The source of this airborne radioactivity is a radioactive plume released from the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant.

For perspective, the maximum potential radiation dose received by any ship's force personnel aboard the ship when it passed through the area was less than the radiation exposure received from about one month of exposure to natural background radiation from sources such as rocks, soil, and the sun.
The ship was operating at sea about 100 miles northeast of the power plant at the time.

Using sensitive instruments, precautionary measurements of three helicopter aircrews returning to USS Ronald Reagan after conducting disaster relief missions near Sendai identified low levels of radioactivity on 17 air crew members. The low level radioactivity was easily removed from affected personnel by washing with soap and water. They were subsequently surveyed, and no further contamination was detected.

As a precautionary measure, USS Ronald Reagan and other U.S. 7th Fleet ships conducting disaster response operations in the area have moved out of the downwind direction from the site to assess the situation and determine what appropriate mitigating actions are necessary.

We remain committed to our mission of providing assistance to the people of Japan.

And the death toll continues to rise as bodies are being found, literally by the thousands.

posted by DrewM. at 12:18 PM

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