Japan: Fukushima I's No. 1 reactor core has melted

Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), the coordinator of the Fukushima I power plant, yesterday admitted for the first time that nuclear fuel has completely melted in one of the three damaged power plant reactors. this.

According to Tepco , the fuel cores in the No. 1 reactor of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant are not completely covered with water and have melted. Currently, it is possible that the melting mass is at the bottom of the reactor and cooling down.

TEPCO also said it could be leaking from a hole in the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant , causing the water level in the reactor to fall rapidly.

The company suspected that the measuring device had a problem after they saw that the water level did not increase even though each day pumped 150m ^{3 of} water to cool the reactor. Yesterday morning, TEPCO found that the water level was 1 meter lower than the lowest position of the fuel rods. This indicates that a large amount of water has leaked into the storage compartment.

The phenomenon of nuclear fuel melting at Fukushima I was confirmed for the first time.

TEPCO sent staff inside the building to adjust the device to measure the water level of the reactor. However, these findings are raising concerns that TEPCO will face challenges in its attempt to complete a plan to stabilize the situation of damaged nuclear reactors within 6-9 months, but This agency has set before.

TEPCO said, the company will reconsider pumping water into the compartment to cool the reactor underway.

Concerning the situation at Fukushima I , on May 11, it was discovered that high-level radioactive water leaked from this factory to the sea. Since May 8, radioactive water in the tuocbin building of the No.3 reactor has been alarmingly high.

In leaking water, concentrations of cesium radioactivity were 620,000 times higher than government safety standards. The water flows out from the tip of a wire-coated tube. It is said that water leaks from water deposited in the turbine building of the No.3 reactor.

Japan is having to shut down many earthquake nuclear reactors and several other reasons, making this month only about one-third of 54 nuclear reactors remain active.

The earthquake on March 11 caused 14 reactors to shut down, of which there were trouble at the Fukushima I nuclear power plant. 19 other reactors are also deactivated to conduct periodic or upcoming inspections.

This week, Chubu Electric Power Company will also stop two reactors at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant. The government has asked for this because of worries about earthquake resistance of the power plant.

So, by the end of this month, a total of 35 reactors, or about two-thirds of the commercial nuclear reactors in Japan, stopped working.

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