Update / SITREP 2:00 PM Thursday 3/17

New file out, time stamped 22:00 the 17th from the JAIF...

2200 3/17 JAIF STATUS FILE

For our readers' information we ARE archiving these reports so that if in the future this links are taken down from the JAIF site we'll have them available to review.

Most promising is the notation that water level at No. 2 is now stated as being at about half the height of the fuel rods, whereas before it was listed only as "recovering after dryout." Most other primary plant parameters remain unchanged at the moment.

WATER CANNON TRUCKS were deployed at about 7 PM last night, Tokyo time which was of course overnight here and the effects are said to have been rather poor in terms of getting a lot of water into the spent fuel pools. However, TEPCO does seem to be indicating that because of the appearance of vapor after the helicopter drops some water probably did get into the spent fuel pool of No. 3 plant.

We have a lot more to come today and tonight both with plant status updates and our own features so keep checking back.

We will also go in depth vis a vis the present status of the actual nuclear reactors themselves at this time since the media is focusing on the spent fuel pools... not that this isn't the most pressing problem right now because it is. However, because of the complexity of the situation a brief review of the power reactor condition at each plant seems warranted.

2:00 PM Eastern Thursday 3/17
ATOMIC POWER REVIEW