It may still be possible to cool the melted fuel, but the radioactive byproducts of this accident just got harder to contain.
The drywell is surrounded by a secondary steel-and-concrete structure designed to keep radioactive material from escaping into the environment. But an earlier hydrogen explosion at the reactor may have damaged this.
We are well into uncharted territory, and I refuse to speculate about worst-case scenarios, which are basically only models or ideas.
I think the best we can hope for is that the Japanese are able to cool the fuel mass enough to slow the release of radionuclides, then eventually entomb the whole thing.
In this best-case scenario, there have been and will continue to be significant release of truly hellish radioisotopes into the food chain.
It is possible that these will bioconcentrate in milk and food that we consume here in New England.
In short, we have passed TMI and are closing on Chernobyl. And this horrible, preventable catastrophe is very far from over.
