[chimera]

They are going to have to do something to flush that salt out, no question. Hopefully sooner than later. I read a report where there were efforts to get either pure water or borated water (weak boric acid solution) going into those pressure vessels, or storage pools (maybe both?).

Maybe it was the best trade-off at the time. They had to do something to reduce that heat load or risk challenging the pressure/temperature limits of the vessel and/or containment. If the normal supply of emergency coolant was unavailable, they had to go with something, and that meant sea water. I am curious to see if there wasn't damage to the neutron-absorbing baffles of the storage pools. If there was that could account for some of the neutron flux readings (not accidental criticality so much as photoneutron production).

[Errant]

I think I read that the US is sending a barge with over 1 M gallons of fresh water. Time is not on our side. If/when the site is abandoned due to higher radiation levels, it's sayonara to a large part of Japan.

I am curious to see if there wasn't damage to the neutron-absorbing baffles of the storage pools.

Saw some recent video of the damage to the roof area (forget which reactor) this morning. Doesn't look good for the storage pool.