In November, Jim Malatras, Cuomo's director of state operations, asked the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to oppose the plant's relicensing, citing «embrittled reactor pressure vessels and fatigued metals on key reactor components» and saying there was no safety evacuation route for the 20 million people living within 50 miles of it in case of a serious accident. (politico.com)
He observed that there are ways to extend the lives of existing reactors, but upgrades get progressively more expensive, and certain components, like reactor pressure vessels, can not be replaced, so renewed operating licenses are only prolonging the inevitable. (scientificamerican.com)
TEPCO modeling and analyses suggest that most, if not all, of the fuel in the Unit 1 reactor melted, burned through the reactor pressure vessel, dropped to the bottom of the containment vessel, and perhaps ate into the concrete base. (sciencemag.org)