Update: Nuclear Disaster in Japan -- Getting Worse -- Not a Bakken Story

On March 16, 2011, I wrote this:

I wonder when they do the post-mortem on the Japanese reactors, if it will be determined that the disaster was compounded and events ended the way they did when the decision was made early on to try saving the reactor rather than the nation.

Today it is being reported that the operator of the Japanese nuclear reactors damaged by the earthquake/tsunami has admitted that it appears that the reactors are "lost," and will never be used again. This suggests to me that the primary effort all these weeks has been to save the reactors. Yes, I know that is very simplistic thinking and "saving the reactors" and preventing a meltdown or release of radioactivity go hand-in-hand.

But most Americans (I assume), including me, don't understand the fine points (nor the coarse points, for that matter) of shutting down a reactor, but if it turns out that immediate action to "bury" the reactor vessels would have prevented this ongoing disaster, pundits will have a field day.

It's my understanding that radioactive water is now likely to reach the ocean.

I keep thinking of US Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu's comment that "coal is [his] worse nightmare."