Most of the releases have been controlled to relief the pressure

interesting choice of words right now at CNN... so if they had a non controlled release can we now call it a leak? Or we will continue to be told that nothing to see here.

do other things (not sure what, but linguistically, that's an alternate interpretation).

if you have a meltdown starting I don't see how releasing pressure stops that. Just guessing here...

Like the one that happened in reactor 1.

remained intact. I fail to see your point.

Engineers were not able to even get to the core today to see whether a meltdown was taking place. They detected radioactive cesium and iodine in the air on Saturday night which made them believe a meltdown is taking place.

Also I read some place else that they have been having difficulties pumping sea water into the casing and there may be a leak some place that is causing it.

Facts are they have detected radioactive cesium and iodine in the air Saturday night which is indicative of a meltdown taking place. Then you have the Japanese ambassador claiming no such thing has happened. Even though the director of their Nuclear agency says it has.

Even if the serious danger is passed, it is still going to be a helluva mess.

Reactor 3 uses MOX...

:hi:

<-------- Gallows humor, fully

Not from releasing steam to relieve pressure. That's my understanding.

and the stories are more convoluted on my return than before I left.

In response to your OP, I don't understand why a controlled release seems to be ok....from what I've been hearing a non controlled release is partial melting but not a full fledged meltdown!?!?

Something else I don't understand is why NOW are they using salt water to cool the reactor(s)? This morning it seemed, according to reports I heard, water must have been hard to get, so, why didn't they use salt water then? Maybe they could have avoided the explosion at Fukushima No. 1. When I then heard that salt water will ruin the reactor I had an "a ha" moment. If they waited to use salt water just to save the reactor, I will be very upset. I'm sure they're worried about that. :sarcasm:

but the controlled release is a faustian choice to avoid the pressure going boom.

As to sea water, the reactor is not coming back once they get this under control

But the choice of words was interesting.