Is Japan crisis becoming a slow meltdown? No, says US Energy secretary. (video)
| Washington
The emergency at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex in Japan is not the slow-motion equivalent of a reactor meltdown, says Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Speaking Friday at a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters, Secretary Chu was asked if the 鈥渂leed and feed鈥� process being used to address the emergency was the equivalent of 鈥� and would do as much damage as 鈥� a meltdown.
Bleed and feed, Chu said, describes the process being used by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. to cool the reactor core 鈥� where 鈥測ou put in fresh water and you release some steam.鈥�
A Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Chu said, 鈥淚t is not as though you are just going to a slow meltdown. You have reached steady state.鈥� But he added, 鈥淲e鈥檇 prefer not to be releasing the steam.鈥� The concern is that the escaping steam carries radioactive particles.
Chu said that US experts, working with their Japanese counterparts, are seeking a way to provide a 鈥渟econdary cooling loop鈥� that would let them cool the reactors without releasing steam.
