Disasters

Japan: Partial Meltdown Occurred

Workers labor to remove radioactive water.

After indications to the contrary, it turns out that a partial meltdown did, in fact, occur at the No. 2 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan: Water 100,000 times more radioactive than usual for water in a reactor core is ''believed to have temporarily had contact with fuel rods [in the reactor's core] that have partially melted,” according to Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano. Tokyo Electric Power Co. also corrected its earlier estimate that the water was 10 million times more radioactive than usual. The water is so radioactive that relief workers can only be near it for 15 minutes before falling ill. Workers are currently laboring to remove radioactive water from reactor No. 1 using three pumps.