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@Jim Carver I'm sure TEPCO will find a way to discredit those seawater radioactivity levels as a "glitch" in the measuring device.

The fuel rods in reactors 1, 2 and 3 are heavily damaged. Pieces of the rods melted into fragments about 1 cm wide or smaller and drifted to the bottom of the pressure vessels, the committee said. search.japantimes.co.jp

Breaker from Alblee:
Excerpt from that news report (with bracketed Alblee comment): But if those operations are interrupted for two or three days by an aftershock or other unforeseen event [[ like a Category 3 typhoon (?) ]], the reactors' cores will again be at risk of melting down further, he said.

@ Marie R -now that is interesting - the glow became much dimmer for a while. Wonder what's happening

Update from JAIF Apr 16th. www.jaif.or.jp

@ Marie Rich - interesting association. I wonder if there's any way to look back at the records & see if there's a correlation & if so how these events are connected

It is nighttime there now and it is hitting a low, I wonder what is causing the spikes?

Maybe just workers disturbing dust and rubble during the day, 25 uSv is a pretty significant change. @ Nancy, low pressures? Because things cool off at night?

Kyodo News: New cooling systems may be installed outside Fukushima reactor buildings
TOKYO, April 16, Kyodo
Tokyo Electric Power Co. is considering installing circulating water cooling systems for nuclear reactors and spent fuel storage pools outside the reactor buildings at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.
The new systems would cool nuclear fuel inside the reactors and spent fuel pools in a stable manner. They would involve heat exchangers and circulation pumps to drain reactor coolant water from the containment buildings, cooling it with seawater and then sending it back to the reactors, the sources said.
TEPCO appears to have already placed orders for dozens of gasketed plate heat exchangers -- each measuring 3 meters high, 1 meter wide and 2 meters long -- for such systems, the sources said.
The existing circulating water cooling systems at the plant were crippled by the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami.
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english.kyodonews.jp
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Seems to be a indirect verification that the existing cooling is ruined. The combination of external power & a dry turbine room won't help. Rebuild necessary.

They still have to get into the turbine rooms to fix the leaks and they can't do that because of the water there, they will continue to have water there until they fix the leaks. If they quit adding water the leaks will stop, and then the fuel rods may burn again. Catch 44 I guess.

@Ralph Unger what a mess. I worry the outside rigged up cooling system would be vulnerable to another quake or tsunami. Then you would have contaminated water everywhere.

A@Nancy, and what would damage to the jury rigged system do to the level of water in the plant?

I still think it is the best they can do and the only way to begin to get a handle on this.

@Ralph Unger so do it but still an unstable situation. BRB must reboot.

Given the fire trucks, big pumps, and the random gate crasher, roads have to be passable

@ Bobby 1 - I'm a bit concerned about the potassium iodide pills. Read somewhere that it's not a good idea, especially for children, unless in a real nuclear emergency. I'll see if I can find the link

re ptassium iodide pills - here's a link to the FDA site www.fda.gov

@UKVal Interesting that they're starting to crank out the pills though.

@madrat, the reactor well may still be offset of the SFP, not directly lined up.

@madrat On #4 we have no info of that drying pool that we do on #3. I think 4 and 3 are pretty close in design. I am pretty sure of the reactor cap being on that lower side. I also have a photo overhead of 4 that has part of the reactor well lip. I think it is just a tad more toward the middle. That would leave the reactor well slightly offset of the SFP.

www.meti.go.jp

16 Apr 6:00 paint parameters.