Japan nuclear plant operator says fuel rods may be melting

Mar 14, 2011, 12:35 GMT

Tokyo - The fuel rods at one of the quake-stricken nuclear reactors in north-eastern Japan may have partially melted, Kyodo News reported Monday citing Tokyo Electric Power Co officials.

The fuel rods at the reactor 2 of the Fukushima I plant were fully exposed late Monday as the water level of the cooling system dropped, damaged by Friday's magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami.

Authorities had been trying to keep the core of the reactor cool with sea water after the quake cut the power to the normal cooling systems.

Operators 'are doing the very best to try to submerge the fuel rods,' Masahi Goto of the Citizens' Nuclear Information Center in Tokyo told a news conference.

The situation was still 'very serious,' Goto said. 'The problem is the cooling system, as it was damaged by tsunami,' said Goto, a specialist in nuclear containment vessels for Toshiba Corp.

'If the fuel rods remain exposed for a long time under the very fragile cooling system, that would lead to a meltdown,' he said.

The containment vessel, which encases the core, should protect the environment from the radiation of a meltdown. But there are concerns that the quake may have damaged the structural integrity of the vessel at Fukushima.

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