Risk of Meltdown Decreases as Workers Attempt to Restore Power; NHK Confirms that Water Pumps Have Been Restarted

There is a string of good news out of Japan this morning. Bloomberg reports Workers Prepare to Connect Power to Stricken Nuclear Plant

Power may be restored to one of the crippled reactors at Japan?s damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant, possibly today, improving the odds that workers can prevent a meltdown and further radiation leaks.

The U.S. military, which is flying unmanned surveillance drones over the 40-year-old power station about 135 miles (220 kilometers) north of Tokyo at Japan?s request, said it is ?cautiously optimistic? that the damage to the reactors can be contained. The risk of a meltdown has lessened after water was dumped on the site yesterday, said Thomas Graham, chairman of Lightbridge Corp., a McLean, Va.-based nuclear fuel developer, said in a Bloomberg Television interview.

?We?re optimistic that we?ll continue to progress in this, and that worst-case scenario will never be encountered,? Admiral Robert Willard, head of the U.S. Pacific Command, told reporters by telephone from Hawaii. The worst-case scenario would be if the effort to keep the cores of the reactors covered were abandoned, he said.

The possibility of a meltdown is ?not off the table, but the more water that goes in there,? the less the risk of a meltdown becomes,? Graham said. ?The reactor situation is definitely not deteriorating as it was and seemingly becoming stable and perhaps becoming more under control.?

Water Pumps Have Been Restarted

Mike in Tokyo Rogers reports Success! NHK Confirms that Water Pumps Have Been Restarted

There is no article. Just a news flash at the top of NHK news site. NHK has confirmed that the water pumps have been successfully restarted.

The blue text at the bottom says, "Fukushima #1 Nuclear Plant #3 Reactor: Japan Self-Defense Force has restarted water pumps (at 2:03 pm)"