- Tepco assumes, huh?



Study Shows Worse Picture of Meltdown in Japan

[link to www.nytimes.com]

Because the simulation suggests that heat released as a result of radioactive decay “far overwhelmed” the effect of the cooling water, he said, and because temperatures in the inner pressure vessel that originally housed the fuel are thought to have dropped quickly, Tepco now assumes that “100 percent of the fuel at Unit 1 has slumped” into the outer primary containment vessel.

In addition, the simulation suggests that the fuel bored more than two feet into the concrete, Mr. Matsumoto said.

At Units 2 and 3, the initial cooling efforts were more successful, he said, and a smaller amount of fuel is thought to have escaped the pressure vessels and into the primary containment vessels.