Just In: TEPCO Has Removed One Fuel Assembly from Reactor 4 Spent Fuel Pool at #Fukushima I Nuke Plant

Headline only at Kyodo News (2012/07/18 12:13):

速報:東京電力は、福島第１原発４号機の燃料プールから未使用の燃料集合体１体を試験的に取り出した。

TEPCO removed one unused fuel assembly from the Spent Fuel Pool at Reactor 4 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, as a test.

Aerial photo at NHK, with workers in white suits. It almost looks like a religious ceremony of some sort.

Kyodo (7/18/2012):

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"Baseless Rumor" from an LDP Upper House Politician: Explosion in Fukushima I on January 9?

Satsuki Katayama is an LDP member of the Upper House of the Japanese Diet and a former career bureaucrat in the Ministry of Finance.

In her official blog on January 13, 2012, Katayama relates the following rumor:

さきほど、南相馬の元市議会議員から市長に連絡がはいり、1月9日にまた、福島第一で（おそらく4号炉だと思うが）なんらかの爆発が起きており、それを政府が隠している、という話であった。真偽のほどはわからないが、水素爆発ではあっても、核爆発ではないであろう。

Just then, there was a communication from the ex-council member of Minami Soma City to the mayor [of Soma City] that there was some kind of explosion at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant on January 9 (probably at Reactor 4 building) and the government is hiding it. I don't know whether it's true or not, but if it is, it is probably a hydrogen explosion, not a nuclear explosion.

Katayama says she was speaking with Hidekiyo Tachiya, mayor of Soma City (north of Minami Soma City) when the mayor related the "rumor" to her. I have no idea why she's allowed to talk loose like this in her official blog.　

So far, it doesn't seem to have gathered much attention in Japan, and many on Twitter ridicule her. But some people are connecting this "rumor" to the massive deployment of the Self Defense Force helicopters on January 9.

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#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Live Camera Shows Huge Smoke/Steam Enveloping the Reactor Buildings

Steady streams of smoke/steam out of the Reactors 3 and 4 suddenly started to engulf the entire reactor complex at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. It is the TEPCO's live camera footage after 12AM JST on June 14. Watch after 2:00. (h/t whomeco)

Something bad is happening there that we aren't told of.

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