Confirmed: Fuel rods at Fukushima reactor have mostly melted. Taxpayer-funded bailout announced

"Two months after an earthquake-caused tsunami caused the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986, Tokyo Electric Power Co. officials have confirmed that the situation in one of the four affected reactors is worse than previously claimed. The fuel rods that powered the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are fully exposed and have melted or fallen into the bottom of the steel containment vessel. That vessel is now believed to be far more damaged than previously admitted by TEPCO. In fact, it contains several holes through which water being poured onto the reactor is leaking into the environment."

Operator of Japan's Stricken Nuclear Plant Has Been "Going Round and Round in Circles" Using the Wrong Approach

"Reactor 1

"Tepco says that the fuel rods at Fukushima reactor 1 are exposed. As Bloomberg notes:

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said fuel rods are fully exposed in the No. 1 reactor at its stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, setting back the utility’s plan to resolve the crisis.

"The water level is 1 meter (3.3 feet) below the base of the fuel assembly, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility known as Tepco, told reporters at a briefing in Tokyo. Melted fuel has dropped to the bottom of the pressure vessel and is still being cooled, Matsumoto said. The company doesn’t know how long the rods have been exposed, he said.

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It’s unlikely the situation has worsened with the discovery the rods are exposed because they’ve probably been out of the water since shortly after the crisis started, Narabayashi said."

It gets worse.