#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor Pressure Vessels with Holes at the Bottom, Underground Tunnel Flooded with Radioactive Water

So what? Says the world, by ignoring the news completely.

This is just unreal. The Reactor Pressure Vessels in the Reactors 1, 2 and 3 are likely to have holes at the bottom, as TEPCO urges us to "imagine a hole at the bottom", and it's not even in the headlines in Japanese news sources. Nothing on English news sources.

Am I hallucinating?

No. I go to the link from my yesterday's post, and the Asahi article is updated with additional information with underground tunnel from the Reactor No.2 all flooded with highly contaminated water which has possibly have been draining into the ocean.

From Asahi Shinbun update (in Japanese, new information only; 7:26PM JST 3/28/2011):

　東日本大震災で被害を受けた福島第一原発で、東電は２８日、２号機のタービン建屋から外へつながるトンネルとたて坑にたまった水から、毎時１千ミリシーベルトの放射線が測定されたことを明らかにした。

TEPCO announced that 1000 milli-sievert radiation was detected from the water from the underground tunnel from the turbine building of the Reactor 2 and the vertical duct [to the tunnel?].

東電によると、２７日午後、タービン建屋から外につながるたて坑と地下トンネルに水がたまっているのを見つけた。２号機の場合、たて坑は深さ１５．９メートル、トンネルは長さ７６メートル。たて坑の出口から１メートルのところまで汚染水が上がってきており、水の表面の放射線量は毎時１千ミリシーベルトを超えた。

TEPCO found out about the flooding of the duct and the underground tunnel in the afternoon of March 27. The vertical duct is 15.9-meter deep, and the tunnel is 76-meter long. The contaminated water was filling the duct up to 1 meter from the top, and the surface of the water measured 1000 milli-sievert.

　たて坑の出口から海までは約５５メートル。海にもれた跡は確認できないという。トンネルには継ぎ目があり、防水加工は完全ではないという。２号機では、タービン建屋内でも、高い濃度の汚染水が見つかっている。東電は建屋の汚染水とトンネルの間で水が行き来しているとみている。

From the duct, it is 55 meters to the ocean. TEPCO said it couldn't confirm whether the water flowed into the ocean. There are seams in the tunnel and the seams are not completely leak-proof. Highly contaminated water has also been found in the turbine building of the Reactor No.2. TEPCO said the contaminated water may be sloshing between the tunnel and the turbine building.

SO THEY WAITED 12 HOURS TILL THEY SAID ANYTHYING about RPVs and this underground tunnel filled with water. The press conference was held past midnight on March 28.

It has been leaked that TEPCO's president was incapacitated and bed-ridden for over a week because of stress before he was supposedly back at the helm. I'm sure he is wishing he hadn't won the race to the top.

Tweet