P!
“TEPCO suspects workers manually suspended the condenser to stabilize the pressure.”
What the heck does that mean, in the context of N-plant operations? Isolated the condenser (valved it off)? Something else entirely?
My guess, leaving fully competent opinion for others, is that the earthquake mechanically damaged the reactor core.
I just can’t see an alternative with the cooling condenser being shut off due to massive containment pressure changes ten minutes after the neutron absorbing shutoff rods were inserted. If the core were undamaged the shutdown process would have proceeded at that point in time as it had in previous emergency shutdown safety drills, that is, “normally”. It is as if the core fuel element tubes had changed their effective surface area and/or separation distance, or that the neutron flux absorber rods did not insert properly.
One hopes someone with more background than I will satisfy my curiosity -