JAPAN

Fukushima Crisis Worst-Case Scenario

Damage surpasses Tepco's predictions.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. admitted on Tuesday that the nuclear crisis in Japan has surpassed officials' initial estimations of damage, as two more reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant have had almost complete meltdowns. A spokesman from Tepco said that the No. 1 reactor suffered the most damage, melting within 16 hours of the quake, but that data from the plant control room recently revealed that fuel rods at reactors 2 and 3 had also melted. Back in March when the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, the U.S. assessed that the damage would be worse than TEPCO predicted. "Now they have confirmed what everyone expected," said a professor of nuclear engineering at Kyoto University.