Everyone is waiting for the situation in Japan to take a turn for the better. But, it gets worse by the day:
Japan’s nuclear crisis intensified dramatically on Wednesday after the authorities announced that a second reactor unit at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan may have ruptured and appeared to be releasing radioactive steam.Yeah, the images of helicopters dumping water on a nuclear plant looks very desperate. And, I still don't think we all really know what's happening. That's certainly the sense one gets from the CNN reporters and experts. The one thing we do know is that it's not getting better.
The break, at the No. 3 reactor unit, worsened the already perilous conditions at the plant, a day after officials said the containment vessel in the No. 2 reactor had also cracked.
Such were the radiation levels above the plant, moreover, that the Japanese military put off a highly unusual plan to dump water from helicopters — a tactic normally employed to combat forest fires — to lower temperatures in a pool containing spent fuel rods that was overheating dangerously.
This morning, NHK is showing what looks like a weather map. But, instead of temperatures, the map gives radiation readings from around the country.
