PROGRESS AT THE JAPANESE NUCLEAR REACTORS

From the Wall Street Journal.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Sunday that the Japanese are making progress at stabilizing the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and said U.S. regulators are reviewing the safety of reactors with a similar design.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Mr. Chu said the situation at the reactor is "more under control." Japanese authorities and power company officials are "making very good progress," he added.

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," Mr. Chu said he believed the main containment vessels in two of the three reactors were "intact" but that officials remain concerned over Unit 2 because higher levels of radiation there suggest there may be a breach in the containment vessel.

Mr. Chu also there was no evidence that the Japanese were holding back information on the reactors. "We have confidence," in information provided by the Japanese, he said.

Japan's nuclear safety agency said Sunday that pressure levels inside the containment vessel of the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima plant are stabilizing. Tokyo Electric Power Co., the plant's operator, said Sunday afternoon that it restored the power supply to the No. 2 reactor.

It's good to see things are beginning to move in the right direction at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. However, there is still much work to do before they are out of the woods. It took technicians months before Three Mile Island was in a cold shutdown phase and years before they even got close to the reactor. It looks like that will be the same thing here.