The News Behind the Non-News of Fukushima’s Multiple Meltdowns

Concrete truck pumps water into crippled reactor at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, March 21, 2011. (Photo courtesy TEPCO)

The news from the owners of the Fukushima nuclear power plant this week that the fuel in all three of its operating reactors melted down soon after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has elicited pretty much a collective global yawn.

Chalk it up in part to the unrelenting global avalanche of news (and “news”) that buries any story that’s barely a degree below the boiling point. And in part to the fact that in making its announcements yesterday and last Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Company was once again weeks behind the curve, confirming what most expert observers had assumed long ago.

But the widespread non-reaction to the news actually reflects a crucial, and as yet underreported element in the still-unfolding Fukushima story: the worst did not happen.

TEPCO says that all of the fuel pellets in unit 1, and most of those in units 2 & 3, likely melted and slumped to the bottom of their reactor vessels when the plant lost power and coolant. Very bad things happened because of that, including hydrogen explosions that blew the roofs off three reactor buildings and released large amounts of radiation into the air.

But contrary to the fears of millions, the melted fuel did not burn through the bottom of the reactor vessels and containment buildings. That would’ve released vastly greater amounts of radiation and led to a far greater disaster. But the reactor vessels held the molten fuel, at least long enough for workers to pump water back in and start cooling the radioactive blob down.

A lot went terribly wrong at Fukushima, and the Japanese will be paying the price for decades to come. And it will be months or even years before we can be certain that the worst at Fukushima is behind us. But for now we can all breathe a collective sigh of relief that at least some key parts of the reactors did work as designed. And we should all be immensely grateful for the heroic, and apparently successful, efforts of emergency workers at the plant to help make sure that the worst did not happen.

That, it seems to me, is the story behind the non-story.

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New York Times: With Reactor Damage Thought to Be Worse, Tokyo Utility Sticks to Plan

Union of Concerned Scientists All Things Nuclear: Decay heat in Fukushima reactors

In pictures: Tsunami hits Fukushima nuclear power plant

TEPCO: Photos For Press