Fukushima

GE and Hitachi are apparently proud of their destroyed Fukushima reactors. They put a promotional banner over the Unit 4 vessel head, which has now been removed from the reactor building (Unit 4 had no fuel in it at the time of the accident). Click photo for larger image.

Summary of Japan Cabinet report on Fukushima and aftermath. Both Tepco and government are still stumbling.

43 organizations tell National Academy of Sciences that unbalanced composition of committee to examine Fukushima disaster violates federal law.

Executive summary of Japan’s Parliamentary Inquiry into the Fukushima disaster that concluded that while it was triggered by the earthquake, it was a "profoundly man-made" disaster rooted in industry/government collusion.

Meanwhile, Tepco says it has achieved “stable cooling” of all of the reactors at the site. This might sound like good news until it is realized that Tepco does not mean the reactors are at cold shutdown. In fact, all 3 reactors with fuel in them remain above the boiling point of 100 degrees Centigrade, meaning that water continues to boil off and radiation continues to be released. Cold shutdown—bringing the temperatures below 100 degrees—is still not expected before What Tepco really means is that it has more or less successfully set up a system for water to be recirculated through the reactors, so that constant water from outside is no longer needed. However, the recirculation system has been plagued with problems from the beginning and continues to not work at desired capacity.

UPDATE, On November 30, Tepco released a document that acknowledged, for the first time, that fuel in Unit 1 of Fukushima Daiichi had likely melted through the reactor vessel onto the concrete basemat below.