Unit 3 after the explosion on 15 March 2011[53]

The Fukushima meltdown may have come within a foot of the ground.

In Unit 1, later analysis suggested most of the melted fuel escaped the reactor pressure vessel and embedded itself in the concrete at the base of containment. A later simulation said it may have come within about 30 cm of leaking into the ground.

Fukushima Nuclear Accident: The Meltdown That Didn't End

IAEA team examining Unit 3[191]

And even then, nobody could be fully sure.

Investigators could estimate the damage, but one nuclear engineer put it bluntly: "We just can't be sure" until the inside of the reactors is actually seen. That is how extreme the destruction was.

Fukushima Nuclear Accident: The Meltdown That Didn't End

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