From the Ticker Forum thread, and Karl is banning anyone posting sheer speculation, it is an excellent place for news/rational comments:
http://tickerforum.org/akcs-www?post=182121&page=71
Morning/evening folks. Latest update on Reactor status from Kyodo News. (Items in parenthesis added by me from other sources)
The following is the known status as of Tuesday evening of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
— Reactor No. 1 - Cooling failure, partial melting of core, vapor vented, hydrogen explosion, seawater pumped in.
— Reactor No. 2 - Cooling failure, seawater pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, vapor vented, damage to containment system, potential meltdown feared.
— Reactor No. 3 - Cooling failure, partial melting of core feared, vapor vented, seawater pumped in, hydrogen explosion, high-level radiation measured nearby.
— Reactor No. 4 - Under maintenance when quake struck, fire caused possibly by hydrogen explosion at pool holding spent fuel rods, pool water level feared receding. (Outer containment building perforated by explosion from No.3-Reuters, Crack in roof of outer containment building-Reuters, 4 Workers missing after explosion, last seen near Reactor 4-Reuters)
— Reactor No. 5 - Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature slightly rising at spent fuel pool.
— Reactor No. 6 - Under maintenance when quake struck, temperature slightly rising at spent fuel pool.
I’m trying to remember the TMI situation, wasn’t that just a partial meltdown due to partially exposed fuel (or control rods, I don’t remember which.) A hydrogen explosion was a concern, but did that ever happen?
I’m just comparing this to TMI, and this is worse by at least a magnatude.
Any experts side-by-side this to TMI?