Yes, there is sth. near R3 now. What I was referring to was the small building very right in the picture, but there is nothing to see now. Maybe they stopped the fire.
Some hours ago there were reports about an explosion near R4. Watching the new webcam I see a building (rightmost one) near R4 which *seems* to smoke or burn.
Difficult to tell in detail, but I think something is going on there.
What building is this? Looks like the nuclear waste facility...
According to the graph above we finally have ice inside of R3.
The data seems to be really trustworthy.
Nevertheless, I don't understand why they increase the cooling effort while temps are falling. What do they know?
I want to come back to what the state of the reactors may be and what this means for the further development of the situation.
It seems that all three RPVs are broken, probably the core melted through their steel already in the first hours after the power loss. It is possible, for me quite...
Not all fuel must have been ejected. And yes, in the days after the explosion they had to "bulldoze over" an area on the site because of some extreme radioactive material. And they found (at least) one piece of fuel 2 km away from the site.
What is your explanation for this?
IMO there are two alternative explanations for the vertical smoke plume and the energy released in the explosion:
1) The SFP went critical / exploded H2
2) Same with the RPV
Both of them are a mess and release huge amounts of radioactive particles. So, basically it does not matter if 1)...
Although it is off topic in relation to the current discussion I'd like to post another question:
The (control?) rods usually contain Boron to catch neutrons. Each Boron-nucleus can only catch one neutron once, so Boron is getting used up. So the rods have to be exchanged after some years...
I know that the China Syndrome in its basic idea is nonsense, but a core melting through the basement into some meters of Earth can not be ruled out, was my understanding so far.
But: How can the core melt holes into the RPV without falling out afterwards at least partially?
I am following this thread now for a long time and I have to thank you all for the fantastic work done. I learned a lot about reactors and the thinks happening in Fukushima.
During the last days the situation has changed. Many expected this before, but now it is official: R1 and probably also...
@dmytry: I looked at some other clouds made with your sw. Fantanstic, great job!
Clouds and explosions have many variables, but wouldn't it be possible to simulate an explosion? With some sort of simulation it should be possible to find out some more detail about the explosion of R3...