Disaster reactor 2 at General Electric designed Fukushima Daiichi is overheating because Tokyo Electric officials miscalculated the cooling water levels!

Reactor 2 was the only active reactor that did not explode immediately after the March 11, 2011 natural disasters.  It has been a constant struggle for TEPCo to keep its temperature down.

On March 26, 2012, TEPCo discovered that one reason is there is much less cooling water in the reactor, than what they first guessed.  They thought there was three meters (9.8 feet) of water in the containment vessel.  There is only 60 centimeters (23.6 inches) of water in the reactor!!!

TEPCo discovered this on Monday, after they used an endoscope to check out the inside of the reactor.  TEPCo has been pumping about nine tons of water per hour, for months now, trying to keep the melted nuclear fuel cooled down.

This is only the second time TEPCo used an endoscope to look inside reactor 2.  The first time the endoscope was too short, and they couldn’t see anything!

The facts that after months of pumping nine tons of water per hour (sometimes more), and finding only 60 centimeters of water at the bottom of the containment vessel, means there is a massive leak!  It also means the melted nuclear fuel has been leaking out, into the Pacific Ocean, as well!

This revaluation comes after a March 15, 2012 report, in which TEPCo said they found “…there were no cracks in the suppression chamber [of reactor 2] and there were no changes in the shape.”

The suppression chamber is also known as the ‘wetwell’, or ‘torus’.  It is separate from the containment vessel.  However, TEPCo also reported high radiation levels coming from the wetwell.  It could be a sign that nuclear fuel is leaking out of the containment vessel and into the wetwell (suppression chamber/torus).

TEPCo also reported that the paint on the wetwell was peeling and the color of the paint had changed.