I should add some of this is guesswork on their part. They can't actually see inside and they have to use instruments to make informed assessments.

Really glad you checked in, man. One of my clients had been there for a little over week on business and just happened to return to the 'States the day before the quake. So I have to ask you, can you and yours get the hell outta there any time soon?

Another press conference from electric company is starting just now. I have probably seen 15 press conferences in the last 3 days. Maybe more.

I wish you could see this. The spokesmen went into their usual blather, tiptoeing around the issue. It was an amazing short announcment compared to ones I have seen. You should have seen the sober looks on their faces. A reporter pointed out that there was a written apology at the bottom of the paper they had been given. This was the first time such a statement had been written. Why? he asks, does this mean we have reached an entirely new level of danger? The guy clammed up and they went to commercial.

Well, thank God! lan, I was so very, very worried. We all have been and will continue to be so. You, your family and your entire country ~ You've all been in my prayers since this started. One prayer answered, many many thousands to go.

I am so glad you're OK. Blow off the email if/when you get it. And thank you so much for checking in.

I'm going to go cry now.

LoveLea

One of two pressure sustain pools that are below the reactor has registered as equal to atmosphere, which leads them to believe it has ruptured and this where the possible leak is, though it has not been confirmed that there is for sure a leak.

However, they believe the pressure in the above reactor (and the other pressure sustaining pool) are still intact, meaning no rupture there.

Yesterday, the fuel rods were completely out of the water (pumped in seawater) and not being cooled for several hours, but it now sounds like have been able to pump water in again and now the rods are now half immersed in water (completely immersed is preferable). The more the rods are cooled (and they have been cooling on and off, depending on whether or not they could get sea water pumped in) the better long term prospects look. But we are dealing with mini sun like temperatures, so it takes a long time for the cool down. If they can't continue the cooling process (and boy have they hit a lot of roadblocks) the remaining heat will build up, and meltdown.

btw Carp, from what I heard Japan refused the coolant b/c they have enough of their own (damn straight they had better have their own supply), but it couldn't be used for reasons I wrote above.

As I write this, you should see the reporters and announcers! They usually have one person sitting next to them handing them papers, sometimes changing papers to newer information while they are reading them. Just now the guy next to the news announcer said, "go into the lead again, and then read this" etc. They are not even bothering with ear mikes and all that. Everything I see is so ad hoc. My online blog I have started here is a mirror of that.

Sorry for the verbal diarrhea but it calms me down, and the wife and son had to go back to work and school today, so I have to vent somewhere - kind of like the rupture below the reactor.

So glad you and yours are ok Lan.
Your first-hand information is intriguing. We will take all we can get.

Sorry more blather: yeah, after the earthquake, phones were out at first and then to busy to use. If I hadn't got off work that day, my son would have spent the night alone because all trains stopped and there was unprecedented gridlock as people tried to take taxis home. My train was coming into a station just as the earthquake hit. I was lucky it was coming into the station or I would have been trapped in a train car for a few hours. I was about two stations from home and I knew the way. We (because everyone on the train and everywhere suddenly starts talking to everyone else as if they weren't perfect strangers)decided the trains wouldn't move for a while, so many of us decided to walk. We would learn later most trains would not move again until the next day. A family from Osaka coming to Tokyo to visit their son for a wedding got off with me and I walked them to their station. During the walk, the second big one hit. I have heard reports that that one was actually bigger (I lost interest in finding out after the nuke plants serious problems came to light). Tokyo was pretty far from the epicenter, but the sensation I remember the most is that suddenly the whole world felt rubbery. This was amplified by being surrounded by high buildings during their rubbery dance.

When I got home I found my son waiting for me. In terms of immediate damage, the only real thing was our TV fell face first. No broken glass, but it wouldn't turn on. Nothing anywhere near to what the people up north are and were going through. My son and I went out the next day to buy/order a new TV. He was excited we were finally getting an HD TV. Ironically, it was delivered a day earlier than scheduled in all these circumstances. Ironic when you would walk out the door and see people quickly (not frantically) buying up essentials, and you think about the conditions people in the north are living in - and your new TV comes early.