Workers are flooding the core with seawater and boric acid in an unprecedented attempt to cool the reactor and thereby prevent a meltdown. Beyond Nuclear spokespeople, Paul Gunter and Kevin Kamps have been in constant touch with reporters and have made appearances on ABC News, CNN, RT, FOX News and CBC (Canada) to date as well as in running stories in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and elsewhere.
The evacuation boundary continues to be extended, reaching 20 km (13 miles) at the time of this bulletin. Japanese officials have told the U.N.’s atomic watchdog they are making preparations to distribute iodine, which can be used to protect people from radioactive exposure to the thyroid. Iodine would not prevent other types of radiation exposure and damage, however.
The Australian Radiation Service released a map showing the potential radioactive plume pathway and fallout should the Fukushima reactor melt down. The map shows the plume affecting the western United States but Beyond Nuclear has not been able to verify the radiation levels given or to understand how they are derived. This map does not mean that a catastrophic radiation leak has occurred. It represents what would happen to a large radiation release if it were to occur.
Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund has already called the accident *“one of the three worst accidents we have ever had at a nuclear power plant in the history of nuclear power,”* recalling the 1979 Three Mile Island, PA meltdown and the 1986 Chernobyl reactor explosion in Ukraine.
Commentator, Keith Olbermann has called for a complete and permanent shutdown of U.S. reactors.
