Latest Update to Damage To Japan's Nuclear Reactors

Japan Earthquake Update (18 March 2011, 10:15 UTC)

Japanese authorities have informed the IAEA that new INES ratings have been issued for some of the events relating to the nuclear emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear power plants.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 2 and 3 reactor Units caused by loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling and water supplying functions in the spent fuel pool of the Unit 4 reactor has been rated as 3.

Japanese authorities have assessed that the loss of cooling functions in the reactor Units 1, 2 and 4 of the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant has also been rated as 3. All reactor Units at Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant are now in a cold shut down condition.

Addition of 12:45 UTC

Japanese authorities have assessed that the core damage at the Fukushima Daiichi 1 reactor unit caused by the loss of all cooling function has been rated as 5 on the INES scale.

This is an upgrade from a previous rating of 12 March as 4 on the INES scale, which was based on an abnormal rise of radioactive dose rate at the site boundary.

www.iaea.org...


The news seems to indicate the conditions of the reactor are worse than previously thought.

Major Accident
Level 7
Serious Accident
Level 6
Accident with
Wider
Consequences
Level 5
Accident with
Local
Consequences
Level 4
Serious Incident
Level 3
Incident
Level 2
Anomaly
Level 1
No Safety
Significance
(Below Scale/
Level 0)

www.iaea.org...

This seems to be a better source for current information on the condition of the reactors.