[chimera]

137Cs is a fission product so it indicates somehow there are fission products in the release. It could be a partially damaged core. But it could also be a result of the earlier pressure releases where coolant had to be spurted out to relieve pressure when they lost their auxiliary cooling capability. There was a partial failure of containment isolation when emergency power was unavailable, and that allowed some containment effluent to be released to the outside. There is always a small inventory of fission products in the coolant of a LWR and we may be seeing those, not necessarily damaged fuel (although it could be that too).

[Jedidah]

Thanks. There’s so much conflicting information out there, it’s hard to know how much to worry.

And the Japanese powers-that-be are almost certainly not telling all.