Fukushima Disaster – Tepco Battles Damaged Nuclear Cores and Exposed Fuel Rods,Spent Fuel Pool Boiling,New Risks from Rising Temperature at Reactors 5 and 6,GE under fire for faulty Mark1 Design

The situation at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant continued to be desperate as new fires and explosions rocked the nuclear plant.The  utility which owns and operates the Nuclear Reactors Tepco said that the containment structure may have been damaged as smoke was seen from top of one of the reactors.70% of the  Fuel Rods at Nuclear Reactor 1 and 33% at Reactor 2 have been exposed.This means that these fuel rods are not being cooled and may be melting leading to increased radiation poisoning hazards.New Fire broke out on the morning of 16th March at Reactor No.4 and containment chamber at Reactor 2 is damaged from Reactor 2.The problems at the Nuclear Plant seems to be increasing with no solution in sight.What is worse is that the 2 reactors No.5 and 6 which have been dormant all this time have all seen their temperature .increasing.Temperatures in the spent fuel rod cooling pools of the shuttered No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were rising as of 7 a.m. today to about 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit)

Tokyo Electric Says 2 Nuclear Reactor Cores May Be Damaged

A fire and aftershocks struck the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant today, as officials battling to prevent a nuclear meltdown said fuel rods at two reactors may have been damaged since last week’s record earthquake.Clouds of white smoke or steam started rising from reactor buildings at 10 a.m. and moving westward inland. Japan Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said radiation levels at the plant rose at that time but have since fallen. About 70 percent of the uranium-plutonium fuel rods at the plant’s No. 1 reactor and a third of the No. 2 reactor’s fuel may have been impaired, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

All the workers at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant have been evacuated except for 50 workers who are battling the increasing problems at the plant at the risk of their lives as dangerous radiation seeps through their bodies.

Nikkie goes up as Bank of Japan pumps Hundreds of Billions into the Market

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday pumped another 3.5 trillion yen ($43.3 bln) into the financial system, adding to the trillions spent Monday and Tuesday to soothe shaken markets

Fukushima Shutdown to Lead to Additional Imports of Coal and Oil by Japan

While Oil Prices and commodities have fallen in the last couple of days,this may be temporary.The shutdown of the The Fukushima Daiichi complex which is operated by Tepco is the 14th largest nuclear-power facility in the world and the fourth largest in Japan, capable of generating 4,700 megawatts when all six reactors are running at capacity.This implies that the shortfall will have to be met by fossil fuel powered power plants.More Oil and Coal will be imported which means that Oil would go up after this correction

General Electric comes under fire for Faulty Nuclear Design of Mark 1 Reactor,23 Reactors in the US use the same Design

The Nuclear Plant uses Mark 1 Reactors designed and built by General Electric in the 1970s.GE has been criticized for the weak systems of cooling and containment of the nuclear reactors.In the United States, 23 reactors at 16 locations use the Mark 1 design, including the Oyster Creek plant in central New Jersey, the Dresden plant near Chicago and the Monticello plant near Minneapolis.In 1972, Stephen H. Hanauer, then a safety official with the Atomic Energy Commission, that the Mark 1 system be discontinued because it presented unacceptable safety risks. Among the concerns cited was the smaller containment design, which was more susceptible to explosion and rupture from a buildup in hydrogen — a situation that may have unfolded at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. G.E.’s liability is limited in Japan  because the regulatory system in that country places most liability on the plant operator

Experts Had Long Criticized Potential Weakness in Design of Stricken Reactor

The warnings were stark and issued repeatedly as far back as 1972: If the cooling systems ever failed at a “Mark 1” nuclear reactor, the primary containment vessel surrounding the reactor would probably burst as the fuel rods inside overheated. Dangerous radiation would spew into the environment.Now, with one Mark 1 containment vessel damaged at the embattled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and other vessels there under severe strain, the weaknesses of the design — developed in the 1960s by General Electric — could be contributing to the unfolding catastrophe.