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Tepco and Government Knew of Meltdowns In Late March
A recent article has emerged in the Japanese media that would suggest both Tepco and the Japanese government were informed of the severity of the unfolding situation at Fukushima Daiichi. In late march Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Japanese Nuclear Safety Commission had contacted both Tepco and the Government that the commission had recognised that a meltdown had taken place in reactors 1-2 and 3. On the 17th of May Haruki Madarame, chairman of the Nuclear Safety Commission, said in a news conference that the meltdowns should not come as a surprise to Tepco or the Government.
“When highly contaminated water was found at the No. 2 reactor building in late March, we recognized that a meltdown had taken place. So I informed the government,” he said. “As for No. 1 and No. 3 reactors, we recognized that, given the processes that led to the accidents there, the same thing had occurred.”
“Melted Core Outside the Containment Vessel”
Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute is quoted by Mainichi Shinbun as saying that the melted core of the Reactor 1 is not just out of the Reactor Pressure Vessel but out of the Containment Vessel.
From Mainichi Shinbun, Koide’s comments only (5/16/2011):
小出裕章・京都大原子炉実験所助教は「電源喪失で原子炉が冷やせなくなれば、早い時期に炉心溶融に至ることは想定できていたはずだ。燃料の損傷が限定的だとしてきた東電の説明は完全に誤っていたことになる。データの公表も遅すぎる」と指摘する。
Hiroaki Koide of Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute points out that “[TEPCO] could have foreseen the core melt at an early stage when the cooling of the reactor stopped due to the power failure. TEPCO’s assessment that the damage to the fuel was limited has turned out to be completely wrong. The disclosure of the data came too late.”
東電は今回の解析で「圧力容器の損傷は大規模ではない」と説明するが、小出助教は「圧力容器は完全に破損し、溶けた燃料が格納容器の底に穴を開け、原子炉建屋の地下に大量の汚染水が漏れ出す原因になっている」と推定する。
According to TEPCO, the data analysis shows that damage to the RPV is not extensive. However, Koide thinks “The RPV has been completely damaged, the melted core bore a hole at the bottom of the Containment Vessel, causing the large amount of contaminated water to leak into the ground beneath the reactor building.”
Reactor No3 (Mox) Fuel May Have Melted And Seeped Into Primary Containment Vessel
Quick and dirty translation, subject to later revision.
Asahi Shinbun (3:01AM JST 5/17/2011):
東京電力福島第一原子力発電所の２、３号機でも炉心溶融が起こり、原子炉圧力容器の底に燃料が崩れ落ちるメルトダウンが起きていたとみられること が、１６日に東電が公表したデータで裏付けられた。３号機では溶けた核燃料がさらに下の格納容器内に落ちた恐れもある。専門家は事故直後から指摘してお り、細野豪志首相補佐官も１６日の会見で２、３号機でのメルトダウンの可能性を示唆した。
The data disclosed by TEPCO on May 16 shows that core meltdown may have occurred in the Reactors 2 and 3 at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. In the Reactor 3, the melted fuel may have dropped to the Containment Vessel. Nuclear experts have pointed to the possibility [of meltdown in the Reactors 2 and 3] and Prime Minister’s Assistant Goshi Hosono hinted at the possibility in the May 16 press conference.
東電が４月１７日に示した工程表は、６～９カ月で原子炉を安定した状態で停止させるとした。１号機に続き２、３号機でもメルトダウンの可能性が出てきた ことにより、工程表の大幅な見直しは必至だ。炉心を冷やすシステムづくりに時間がかかり、高濃度の放射能汚染水の処理も膨大になるからだ。
According to TEPCO’s “roadmap” on April 17, it was going to take between 6 to 9 months to shut down the reactors. The revision of the “roadmap” will be inevitable now that both Reactor 2 and Reactor 3 may have had a meltdown, as it will take more time to build a cooling system for the reactor core, and the massive amount of highly contaminated water will need to be processed.
Japanese Officials Ignored or Concealed Dangers
If such a quake struck, electrical power could fail, along with backup generators, crippling the cooling system, the lawyers predicted. The reactors would then suffer a meltdown and start spewing radiation into the air and sea. Tens of thousands in the area would be forced to flee.
Although the predictions sound eerily like the sequence of events at the Fukushima Daiichi plant following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the lawsuit was filed nearly a decade ago to shut down another plant, long considered the most dangerous in Japan — the Hamaoka station.
It was one of several quixotic legal battles waged — and lost — in a long and largely futile attempt to improve nuclear safety and force Japan’s power companies, nuclear regulators, and courts to confront the dangers posed by earthquakes and tsunamis on some of the world’s most seismically active ground.
The lawsuits reveal a disturbing pattern in which operators underestimated or hid seismic dangers to avoid costly upgrades and keep operating. And the fact that virtually all these suits lost reinforces the widespread belief in Japan that a culture of collusion supporting nuclear power, including the government, nuclear regulators and plant operators, extends to the courts as well.
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The People’s News Network 
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