Building pressure at reactor 3 increasingly dangerous, fuel pool cooling slowly progressing

Pressure inside the reactor’s steel containment is still rising. Tepco increased cooling efforts but has been unable to stop the increasing pressure which unabated threatens to breach the containment structure. In such an event, given the destruction of the reactor building, radioactive steam and air would be released directly into the atmosphere.

Tepco claims says containment pressure could be stabilising, but situation is still dangerous. Radiation levels in Daini, south of Daiichi, doubled when the wind turned south. The fuel rods in the reactor have been out of water for days, releasing radioactive substances into the reactor pressure vessel (“steel casing”). The hot fuel rods turn water into steam which is then vented to from the pressure vessel into the containment.

Source: Greenpeace International