Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Sunday announced a road map for actions to bring the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant under control. It is expected to take three months to steadily decrease the release of radioactive materials while cooling the reactors (Step 1), and additional three to six months to keep the reactors continuously cooled at less than 100 C (Step 2).
In Step 1, Tepco plans to flood the containment vessels of reactors Nos. 1 and 3 with water to the top of the active fuel. But it is not certain whether this process will cool the reactors sufficiently. Furthermore, a strong quake during this step could severely damage the reactors.
Tepco also plans to use adhesive cement to close a crack in the suppression pool at the base of the No. 2 reactor's containment vessel. But how will it locate the crack? And when the breach is found, how will it carry out the work to patch the leak in an environment of extremely high radiation levels?