- When pressure in the containment vessel finally starts to decrease, TOEPCO headquarters want on-site workers to get back to work, but Yoshida is wary.
- Murukami finally receives the approval from the Cabinet to start injecting sea water into the reactor unit 1.
Water supply for the RCIC at unit 2 also runs out and a decision is made to inject seawater into unit 2. But at unit 2 also, for some reason the seawater is not reaching the reactor.
The reactor pressure is 7.38 Mpa and has increased by 2 Mpa in the last hour. The pressure inside the reactor is preventing any water from flowing. Yoshida knows he has to vent the main reactor, but for that they need to open the SR valve and close the AO valve. The radiation levels around 1 section of unit 2 is 300 MSV and in the other section is 100 MSV. Yoshida asks Maejima to chart the safest route to the AO valve to shut it down and to open the SR valve.
Meanwhile, the cabinet is now worried about the threat of hydrogen explosion at the other units. Once again, the management layer of TOEPCO have no clue about what is happening at the power plant. They only say that there is a possibility, which only makes Azuma and Sano even more livid.
Maejima goes himself into unit 2 reactor building but finds that the AO valve is just above the suppression chamber. The radiation is too high just above the suppression chamber and the temperature of the chamber melts his boots. Maejima is forced to retreat. Yoshida informs Murukami that the water levels in unit 2 are at 700 mm and the fuel rods are now exposed to air. They will start melting in the next 2 hours. Due to this the pressure vessel will be damaged and radiation will pour into the atmosphere. A major contamination event is inevitable. Thus, the power station employees will be exposed to radiation and the reactors themselves will be unreachable. In turn, reactors 1, 3 and 4 will also meltdown and melt through their respective containment vessels.
Yoshida looks at the engineering blueprints to see that the SR valve needs 125 volts to operate. He asks Kinoshita to use car batteries in tandem to force the valve open. Meajima starts working on the plan at the control room.
Meanwhile the fire department starts clearing the debris around unit 3. Yoshida finds that the pressure in containment vessel at unit 2 is at 500 Kpa, while the vessel's design rating is at 380 Kpa. Yoshida gives the order to evacuate as the situation at all reactors is getting out of control. As Murukami asks Yoshida to resume work, he receives news that the control room has been able to open the SR valve at unit 2. Yoshida asks the team to start pumping water into unit 2 and then prepare unit 3 similarly. Unit 2 pumping resumes and water starts going in, but there is a lot of debris around unit 3 and it takes a long time to clear it.
As Hayami and his team reach unit 3 to rig the lines for seawater injection, a huge explosion rips through unit 3. The explosion is accompanied by flames and falling debris, both of which were absent at the explosion in unit 1. Immediately afterwards, the radiation levels spike in the area surrounding the reactors. Hayami and the other workers have to evacuate on foot, as all the vehicles had their batteries removed. The workers are exposed to high levels of radiation. Unit 3 is using Plutonium and not Uranium. Plutonium is much more toxic in comparison. Azuma has no choice but to escalate the threat assessment to level 7, the highest level and an international incident, which is what Chernobyl was.
Yoshida finds that the temperature in unit 4 fuel rods is increasing rapidly. The pools contain 1535 rods. The explosion may have damaged the water pool designed to keep the rods cool even without power. Hence water may have leaked out and now the temperature is rising. The fuel rods at Fukushima are not shielded. If they get exposed to air, an enormous amount of radiation will be released.
Meanwhile, the water level in unit 2 starts to go down, and the pressure starts to rise. In 5 hours, the fuel rods will be exposed again. Yoshida knows that he will never leave the power plant alive and is resigned to his fate.
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