Officials are reporting that a loud bang was heard from inside reactor 2, at Fukushima nuclear plant 1.

It is believed that it is the “Separation Chamber” cracking (some reports call it “Suppression Pool”, some called it the “Pressure Suppression Room”).  Workers at the plant have been moved to “safer” positions, workers not directly involved with cooling efforts have been evacuated.  An official said this chamber is a last line of defense for preventing higher levels of radiation leaking. He also said this could be the worst case scenario taking place.

It was explained that if the separation chamber is breached then contaminated coolant/water with higher levels of radiation can leak out.  The chamber may have cracked due to the intense heat from the exposed fuel rods.  The fuel rods had been fully exposed, more than once.  Workers have been having trouble maintaining levels of coolant, even with pumping in sea water.  Officials claim that the water levels have been brought back up, but at least 2 meters of the rods are still exposed.

Officials keep saying that radiation readings are safe, there in Japan.  They fail to point out that the winds have been blowing the radiation clouds over the Pacific, towards Hawaii. If the winds shift, and blow the radiation towards Japan, then the radiation levels there would increase greatly. The U.S. Navy has moved their ships further away from Japan after several aircrews, on helicopters, were exposed to radiation.

NBC news reported that the reason the back up generators failed is because the fuel tanks were above ground tanks, and were swept away by the tsunami.