Melted Fuel May Be Deposited At N-Reactor Bottoms: Group

Melted Fuel May Be Deposited At N-Reactor Bottoms: Group

TOKYO, April 15 (Bernama) -- Part of nuclear fuel rods has melted and stays in the form of powder at the bottoms of three reactor pressure vessels of the Fukushima No. 1 plant, Japan's Jiji Press reported quoting a Japanese academic group as saying.

The No. 1 to No. 3 reactors of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s plant have suffered major damage to their cores because the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems, according to the outcome of analyses by a specialist group of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan.

Part of the reactors' fuel rods were exposed for a long time after the power was lost for the cooling systems, and it is highly likely that part of them has melted and been damaged, the group said.

The group said it does not favor a view among some experts that the melted fuel may destroy the reactor vessels by falling to their bottoms at extremely high temperatures.

At present, the temperatures in the lower parts of the reactor pressure vessels are low and the melted fuel is believed to have been cooled and deposited as powder, the group said.