The Fukushima Event is going to have to be declared a Level 8 or Level 9 incident
soon enough.[Edit:INES wil have to rewrite the standards because this is off their scale]
H/T to Zero Hedge for noting this
http://www.zerohedge.com/...
analysis of a 400-milliliter water sample taken Tuesday from the No. 4 unit's spent nuclear fuel pool revealed the damage to some fuel rods in such a pool for the first time, as it detected higher-than-usual levels of radioactive iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137." These confirm an ongoing fission reaction
the original source is Kyodo News
http://english.kyodonews.jp/...
According to TEPCO, radioactive iodine-131 amounting to 220 becquerels per cubic centimeter, cesium-134 of 88 becquerels and cesium-137 of 93 becquerels were detected in the pool water. Those substances are generated by nuclear fission.
That Reactor was shut down and defueled February 15, and it's generating Short lived Radio-Isotopes. That means it's managed to go re-critical.
That also means it's generating heat up in a busted fuel pool
It also means Unit 4 will continue dumping Radiation into the Outside Environment.
The government's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said the confirmed radioactive materials were up to 100,000 times higher than normal but that the higher readings may have also been caused by the pouring of rainwater containing much radioactivity or particles of radiation-emitting rubble in the pool.
This isnt' soothing. It means that cooling water dumped in will get irradiated and dump lots of radionuclides down the basement and into the harbor.
The highly toxic water is believed to originate from the No. 2 reactor's core, where fuel rods have partially melted. The water, which has also affected other parts of the plant, is hampering efforts to restore the reactors' key cooling functions, lost in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Oh and that's a final slipped in announcement that Reactor 2 is breached.
I hope KBMAN is up to speed on the reactor breach, after he and other apologists spent
weeks denying that the reactors were breaching containment.
EDIT For those unaware, I know INES only defines a 7 level model.
They will have to expand i to additional Levels