Japan earthquake: Nuclear meltdown at Fukushima plant highly likely

March 15, 2011 7:10AM (Australia) 

Last night, Japan's chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said night that a meltdown was "highly likely" at three of the plant's nuclear reactors on the country's shattered northeastern coast, the Kyodo news agency reported. Daily Telegraph

Sheer folly of nuclear

A great piece by The Guardian's John Vidal. Here's the lead:

The gung-ho nuclear industry is in deep shock. Just as it and its cheerleader, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were preparing to mark next month's 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident with a series of self-congratulatory statements about the dawning of a safe age of clean atomic power, a series of catastrophic but entirely avoidable accidents take place in not one but three reactors in one of the richest countries of the world.

"A gigantic science experiment, with the Japanese people as guinea pigs."

Read Michio Kaku on the spiraling nuclear disaster in Japan.

Nuke rods fully exposed again

Posted at noon, March 14: A Japanese utility says fuel rods at a troubled nuclear reactor were once again fully exposed hours after authorities were able to stabilize a similar emergency. Tokyo Electric Power Co. says the exposure happened at Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant because a steam vent wouldn't open Monday, causing a sudden drop of water. That reactor and two others at the plant are dangerously overheating and authorities are racing to prevent meltdown. AP

America on nuclear alert: Could fallout from Japan explosion reach U.S. West Coast?

Potential consequences: How a full-scale meltdown could affect the U.S. by flying across the Pacific OceanLast updated at 2:52 PM (UK time) on 14th March 2011

America was on alert today amid fears the nuclear fallout from the Japan earthquake could reach the West Coast of the U.S.

Scientists warned of a 'worst-case scenario' in which a meltdown could blast highly radioactive material into the atmosphere.

This would be then picked up by powerful 30,000ft winds carrying the debris across the Pacific and hitting America within four days. Link also provides a larger map. Daily Mail