Fukushima #1 power station has 6 reactors – reactors 4,5 and 6 were offline for maintenance.
Reactor #1 has had the containment building blow up.
Now comes the news that Reactor #3 at Fukushima #1 is very probably melting down, but with a new issue. Over in France they developed the idea of mixing in some plutonium in their fuel rods, and that was the fuel currently in Reactor #3. Spiking fuel rods with plutonium has 2 main benefits – first because the plutonium is “hotter” than U235, the fuel lasts longer and produces more heat. The longer term benefit is that when you put Plutonium in a commercial reactor, it actually consumes the plutonium – this process is being used to destroy all the plutonium that was created during the cold war to make nuclear weapons.
Utilities in the United States had asked the NRC for permission to use the French process fuel rods in the United States and I believe I read that permission had been granted.
*** update – latest report is Japanese authorities are preparing for reactor #3’s containment building to blow up ***
