UPDATE: There is some speculation that the steam events could be tied to small bits of melted rods (corium) dropping into water in
containment when there are earthquakes as there were during both events or that small bits of rod have hit ground water.

UPDATE: TEPCO is purposely withholding plant perameter statistics (pdf) for the time period of this incident. If you look at this report for reactor 3 they
document statistics every 3 hours. Except between 23:00 and 5:00(am). The 2am report is missing. That report may have had data related to the increased
steam in the early morning hours.

More Steam and Smoke at Fukushima. This started about 1:00pm CST (3:10am JST ) May 11 (May 12 in Japan)

Viewers claimed they saw a "mushroom cloud" or some sort of burst initially before the extreme steam covered the area.
This still image has what was described as an initial "fireball" someone saw and caught on video before the deep steam covered the plant.

At 3:15 am JST a 5.5 earthquake hit off the Japanese coast in the general region near Fukushima

3:22am JST


3:23 am JST

3:24am JST