US Official: Japan Nuclear Plant Data Reliability Is A Concern(&reactors structurally unstable)

Nikkei ^ | 05/12/11

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Thursday, May 12, 2011

US Official: Japan Nuclear Plant Data Reliability Is A Concern

ROCKVILLE, Md. (Dow Jones)--A top official with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expressed concern Thursday with the reliability of instrumentation readings and with potential structural problems at a stricken Japanese nuclear plant.

"The reliability of instrumentation complicates our understanding of the exact plant conditions at any given time," Bill Borchardt, the commission's executive director of operations, said Thursday.

Borchardt also said Japanese authorities faced the challenge of "structural concerns that have recently been identified, at least potential structural issues," related to spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 at the plant.

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They are bombed-out buildings. Their structural integrity is definitely a problem, even though this angle has not been explored in news reports so far. These reactors keep on giving problems.

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P!

[justa-hairyape]

Borchardt also said Japanese authorities faced the challenge of "structural concerns that have recently been identified, at least potential structural issues," related to spent fuel pools at Units 3 and 4 at the plant.

So they are now worried about the structural integrity for the spent fuel pool in unit #3. Probably a logical conclusion given the recent video survey of that devastated pool. We were hoping it was just collapsed assemblies on top of the fuel rods. Appears to be something structural due to all that weight. Those assemblies were thrown up very high into the air due tot he massive explosion.