Fukushima smokes, steams, puts self out again.

There are new fires at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plants. There was a fire on the roof of Reactor Unit 3. It burned for several hours causing workers to pull out of the area to have radiation levels tested. The radiatoi levels did not, however, change. About 6:00 PM local time fire went out (on its own) something like steam or smoke (said by TEPCO to be most likely steam but not from the fuel storage pool) started coming out of the building housing Reactor 2. There is no explanation at this time for either incident.

Both reactor buildings were damaged by the same hydrogen explosion (in Reactor 3's building) soon after the quake and tsunami.

Reactor 3 has had problems with its fuel storage pool which contains some fuel rods with the somewhat more dangerous "MOX" fule. Reactor 2 is thought to have suffered a partial meltdown in the core.

Reactor 2 hasn't been mentioned much in the news. Some time after the aforementioned damage, there was a second explosion heard somewhere in the vicinity of the reactor containment vessel.

The fire department has stopped spraying water on the plants for the day, and will await a safety reassessment.

Sources here and here.

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