What happened at Fukushima?

More information has begun to emerge as to actually what happened at Fukushima, with it now being clear that full fuel melt-down did occur, perhaps even starting before the tsunami hit, although we are still some way off knowing what the longer term impacts will be, and what should done to avoid a recurrence. Indeed a global agency that covers nuclear safety, based on the 72-nation Convention on Nuclear Safety (which was set up after the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown), has decided to delay reporting on its assessment of the accident until August next year, saying that ‘the lessons-learned process cannot be completed until sufficient additional information is known and fully analyzed.’ This makes the UK safety review, to be completed by this coming September, seem a little hasty, but then the government evidently want to get on with processing the nuclear consents programme - the Generic Design Assessment has been delayed until the NII safety review is complete.