The Good News & Bad News About The Reactors

Note: I am simply going to continuously add material to this article on Japan and the impact on the world economy so that we don’t ‘lose’ a very rich discussion that resulted from the alert by splitting it into a different thread.

Friday, March 18, 2:12 P.M. 

First, the fact that it’s been 24 hours without any significant reported deterioration of the heat or radiation emitting from the Fukushima complex hints that the situation has possibly hit bottom and/or stabilized.  No news is good news.  One view would be that the spent fuel has had plenty of time to do whatever it was going to do, and so far there are no signs that it’s gone critical or burst back into flames. Perhaps it’s done all it’s going to do.

Also, NHK is reporting that electricity has been restored and that the water pumps serving Reactor #3 have been restarted. That’s an enormous relief if it’s true. Let’s keep our fingers double crossed that it is.

That’s the good news.

Now for the bad news.

I want to explore the photos again because we have some new information. Earlier in the week I was concerned that photos had been doctored to minimize damage to Reactor #4 because I had thought that the discrepancies between what we knew (or thought we knew) about Reactor #4 and the discrepancy between the images of it taken on Monday, March 14th and Wednesday, March 16th did not match official descriptions of events at the site. At all.

A quick timeline so far for Reactor #4:

1. March 11 (Fri): The earthquake and tsunamis strike
2. March 12 (Sat): Explosion tears away upper structure in Reactor #1.
3. March 13 (Sun): Partial meltdown reported possible in Unit 3.
4. March 14 (Mon): Reactor #3 blows up. Videos and a satellite image rapidly made available.
5. March 15 (Tues): A fire is reported to have broken out at Unit 4. It is blamed on lubricating oil. No new satellite image to work with.
6. March 16 (Wed): A new fire at Reactor #4 is reported, but described as minor. Satellite image reveals extensive damage to Reactor #4 and what appears to be material all over the roof.