US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, today said that 70 percent of the core of reactor No. 1 at the hard-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan has suffered severe damage. Additionally, the DOE said reactor No. 2 had suffered a 33 percent meltdown. Based on available information, Chu believes water is now covering the cores of the damaged reactors and that pools of spent fuel on top of the reactor buildings are “now under control.” (New York Times)