[Peace-discuss] Japanese warning

[C. G. Estabrook]

March 14, 2011
Japan: The Reactor Risk

Posted by Elizabeth Kolbert


The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have a listing for 
“meltdown” in its glossary of terms. The closest you get is “core melt 
accident,” which the NRC defines as “an event or sequence of events that result 
in the melting of part of the fuel in the reactor core.” In the case of a “core 
melt accident,” a reactor’s nuclear fuel rods overheat and, at a temperature of 
several thousand degrees, quite literally begin to melt.

The Three Mile Island disaster, in 1979, is often described as a “partial core 
meltdown.” In that case, the reactor vessel, which houses the reactor behind 
thick walls of steel and concrete, was not breached. The Chernobyl disaster, in 
1986, resulted in a rupture of the reactor vessel and the wide dispersal of 
radioactive particles. However, since Russian reactor design is very different 
from American (and Japanese), most experts argue that the Chernobyl accident 
does not offer much information that is useful outside of Russia. (I wrote about 
another plant, Indian Point, in 2003.)

The obvious worry about the damaged reactors in Japan is that one or more of 
them will suffer a complete meltdown—however you define that. (It seems that two 
have already probably suffered “partial meltdowns.”) What would happen then is 
not entirely clear, which in itself is rather terrifying. A great deal, it 
seems, would depend on the strength and integrity of the reactor vessels. The 
plant’s secondary containment buildings have already been breached by 
explosions. Japanese officials are apparently very worried about the 
unfortunately very real possibility of meltdown; this is why they have flooded 
the damaged reactors with seawater. Although they seem to be trying to downplay 
the risks from the damaged plants, their actions suggest that they believe the 
risks of (further) catastrophe to be significant.

Read more 
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/03/japan-the-reactor-risk.html?printable=true&currentPage=all#ixzz1GbFOxWIb


On 3/14/11 6:03 AM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>
> {From <http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,750773,00.html>.]
>
> ...The fact that Japan, which was once considered a miracle economy, was on 
> the verge of a nuclear disaster could be far more devastating to the nuclear 
> industry than the Soviet reactor catastrophe in Chernobyl could ever have been 
> a quarter century ago.
>
> Admittedly, Japan is in an earthquake zone, which puts it at greater risk than 
> countries like Germany and France. But Japan also happens to be a leading 
> industrialized nation, a country where well-trained, pedantically precise 
> engineers build the world's most advanced and reliable cars.
>
> When the Chernobyl accident occurred, Germany's nuclear industry managed to 
> convince itself, and German citizens, that aging reactors and incapable, 
> sloppy engineers in Eastern Europe were to blame. Western reactors, or so the 
> industry claimed, were more modern, better maintained and simply safer.
>
> It is now clear how arrogant this self-assured attitude is. If an accident of 
> this magnitude could happen in Japan, it can happen just as easily in Germany. 
> All that's needed is the right chain of fatal circumstances. Fukushima is 
> everywhere...
>
>
>
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