Reactor Core At Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant May
Have Been Breached TOKYO -- Japanese nuclear safety officials
said Friday that they suspect that the reactor core at one unit
of the troubled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant may have
breached, raising the possibility of more severe contamination
to the environment. "It is possible that somewhere at the
reactor may have been damaged," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a
spokesman for the nuclear safety agency. But he added that "our
data suggest the reactor retains certain containment functions,"
implying that the damage may have occurred in Unit 3's reactor
core but that it was limited. Officials say the damage could
instead have happened in other equipment, including piping or
the spent fuel pool. Operators have been struggling to keep cool
water around radioactive fuel rods in the reactor's core after
the March 11 earthquake and tsunami cut off power supply to the
plant and its cooling system. Damage could have been done to the
core when a March 14