The New York Times has obtained a copy of a confidential document prepared by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's oversight team of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant disaster. The nuclear hazard assessment warns of an increasingly complicated path towards restoring cooling and regaining control of the severely damaged reactor systems in four of the six units. New threats of more hydrogen gas explosions and futher damage to the reactors from water laden reactor buildings from more earthquake aftershocks may be increasing.
One of the most disturbing news story accounts taken from the NRC document states:
"The document also suggests that fragments or particles of nuclear fuel from spent fuel pools
above the reactors were blown “up to one mile from the units,” and that pieces of highly
radioactive material fell between two units and had to be “bulldozed over,” presumably to
protect workers at the site. The ejection of nuclear material, which may have occurred
during one of the earlier hydrogen explosions, may indicate more extensive damage to the
extremely radioactive pools than previously disclosed."