Japan Times: It is now a “grave situation” at Fukushima — “Plutonium fission” mentioned for first time — “Criticality is very likely to have occurred” Nov. 3, 8:30 pm ET (Emphasis Added) — A report published at 8:30 pm ET by the Japan Times calls on Tepco and the Japan gov’t to “find out true reactor conditions” at Fukushima.
Tepco announced Wednesday that, according to the Times, “There is the possibility that criticality, a sustained nuclear chain reaction, had occurred ‘temporarily’ and ‘locally’ in the No. 2 reactor.”
During it’s testing, Tepco has detected xenon-133 and -135, “Products of uranium or plutonium fission.”
The half life of xenon-135 is about 9 hours, therefore, “Criticality is very likely to have occurred just before the gases were analyzed,” reports the Times.
“Clearly the reactor has not yet been stabilized,” and, according to the Times, “The fact that Tepco cannot deny the possibility of criticality irrespective of its scale is a grave situation.”
And the article notes, “Conditions are similar in the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors.”
Now is the time to get “serious” writes The Times:
“Tepco should make serious efforts to accurately grasp the conditions of nuclear fuel inside the reactors.” “Tepco and the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency should take a serious view of the fact that radioactive xenon pointing to criticality was detected from the No. 2 reactor. What happened in it can happen in the Nos. 1 and 3 reactors.”