US drone uncovers “cracks” in multiple containment pools on Friday

Published: March 18th, 2011 at 9:33 pm ET
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What are the options for containing Fukushima’s radioactive emissions?, Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2011:

Edward Morse, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, added that it will take huge amounts of water to compensate for the cracks in the containment pools that were uncovered by U.S. surveillance aircraft on Friday.

Radiation hampers efforts to restore power to nuclear plant in Japan, Los Angeles Times, March 18, 2011:

Workers made a second series of attempts Friday to cool the fuel rods, dumping water from helicopters and using water cannons operated by Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to spray water into the pool, which sits in the upper level of the building housing reactor No. 4. The reactor itself had been shut down for maintenance before the earthquake, so it does not pose a problem.

But photographs taken by helicopters and a Global Hawk drone operated by the U.S. Air Force indicate the water is not lasting very long in the pool, suggesting that there is a major breach in the walls of the vessel holding the fuel rods, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Published: March 18th, 2011 at 9:33 pm ET
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