Re: China Syndrome
Posted by Jackstraw on 3/14/2011, 1:45 pm
First let me say I'm not a proponent of Nuclear Energy by any means, in fact I'm completely against it.
From all reports from all agencies involved, and we need to indeed hope this is the case, all 3 reactors successfully scrammed when the earthquake hit before the tsunami struck.  Once scrammed the cores are no longer in an "active" fissioning state, but rather are now in a slow decay state, or natural decay.  These are Light Water Reactors which means the cooling water around the core is also the neutron moderator is that accelerates the fission process.  No water, no uncontrolled fission.  In essence as long as the reactors scrammed properly the likely hood of an uncontrolled nuclear fission reaction is very very small.  

The slow decay state the cores are in does produce heat and can melt fuel rods.  The amount of energy released in a slow decay state can be very accurately calculated and the containment buildings can be constructed way above this tolerance. The important thing is a "full meltdown" of a reactor in a slow decay state can be contained as long as the containment building was constructed properly.  The threat of a high energy fission meltdown that would breach the containment vessels is very very small, (though thats enough reason not to build them).

We just need to be careful before jumping to conclusions.  In all honesty, I'm amazed at the engineering that's prevented these things from a total catastrophic meltdown after being hit by a 9.0 earthquake, a 30 foot tsunami, and 2 very large hydrogen explosions.
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China Syndrome - JAC, 3/14/2011, 12:09 pm
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