Japan’s telling nuclear power crisis remains at an unbalanced, volatile stage, warn US nuclear experts who, while hopeful, say past nuclear accidents – at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl – grew far worse over several days before being forbidden.




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Their comments, which came during a Saturday meeting call convened by anti-nuclear power groups, were in sharp contrast with reports by the Japanese government which appeared to indicate the main crisis in one of its nuclear reactors was past, although a state of emergency remained in effect for five reactors.



Japanese soldiers were reported pumping seawater into the No. 1 reactor at the Fukushima I power plant 150 miles north of Tokyo, to keep it cool. But one US expert characterized the move as an apparent last-ditch “Hail Mary” effort that could easily fail and be followed by a major radioactive release.