Oh Crap

In a news conference, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary said that they were pulling everyone out of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, though it appears that a small number of workers have elected to stay on:

11:13 P.M. |Core Group of Workers Remain at Plant

The Times’s Hiroko Tabuchi reports that a small group of workers remains at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, contrary to what an English translation of the chief cabinet secretary’s remarks had implied.

10:22 P.M. |Chief Cabinet Secretary’s News Conference

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, is holding a news conference that is being broadcast live on Japanese television. Mr. Edano said radiation readings started rising rapidly Wednesday morning outside the front gate of the Fukushima Daiichi plant. “All the workers there have suspended their operations. We have urged them to evacuate, and they have,” he said, according to a translation by NHK television.

This is not good, that if the situation is as reported, those men remaining at the plant have to know that they are at very real risk of death.

We also have a report that a fire has restarted at the power plant, though it is unclear where this fire might be.

If this is the zirconium cladding of the spend fuel rods in the cooling pools, this could get very ugly very quickly.

If interested, you can see satellite and U-2 imagery here.