Okay. Okay. Please settle down on the reactors, folks.
There were several reasons that the Chernobyl reactor touched off, many of which simply do not apply to this reactor design at all. Many more of which do not apply because the people operating these reactors are not trying to conduct crazy experiments. Two of the MAJOR contributing factors, as best as anyone has been able to tell, in Chernobyl was a fault in the design of the reactor which caused the fuel rods to displace coolant as they were inserted with a material that did not serve as a neutron absorber. (In effect, inserting the control rods partially would actually cause the reaction to get WORSE.) The second major fault in the Chernobyl reactor design was the use of graphite in its construction, a material nobody sane has used in decades.
The potential exists for the contents of the reactors to melt. Yes. This does not mean that we are going to see Prypiat II: Electric Boogaloo.
If worst comes to worst they can easily dump seawater into the reactor vessels and immediately arrest the problem. Sea water is one of the best insulators around for free neutrons because of the minerals in it. Of course, the minerals in it will destroy the ability of the reactor to ever be used again, but such is life.
This really is a Three Mile Island level problem, not Chernobyl.
Instead of worrying so much about the reactors, instead worry about places like Minamisanriku, where 9500 people have vanished without a trace and the entire city is simply gone. Erased from the map. This is where the real disasters are. Worry about an oil refinery which has been burning for two days now, and the rain is sending sulfuric acid to earth for 100km around the facility.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead
There were several reasons that the Chernobyl reactor touched off, many of which simply do not apply to this reactor design at all. Many more of which do not apply because the people operating these reactors are not trying to conduct crazy experiments. Two of the MAJOR contributing factors, as best as anyone has been able to tell, in Chernobyl was a fault in the design of the reactor which caused the fuel rods to displace coolant as they were inserted with a material that did not serve as a neutron absorber. (In effect, inserting the control rods partially would actually cause the reaction to get WORSE.) The second major fault in the Chernobyl reactor design was the use of graphite in its construction, a material nobody sane has used in decades.
The potential exists for the contents of the reactors to melt. Yes. This does not mean that we are going to see Prypiat II: Electric Boogaloo.
If worst comes to worst they can easily dump seawater into the reactor vessels and immediately arrest the problem. Sea water is one of the best insulators around for free neutrons because of the minerals in it. Of course, the minerals in it will destroy the ability of the reactor to ever be used again, but such is life.
This really is a Three Mile Island level problem, not Chernobyl.
Instead of worrying so much about the reactors, instead worry about places like Minamisanriku, where 9500 people have vanished without a trace and the entire city is simply gone. Erased from the map. This is where the real disasters are. Worry about an oil refinery which has been burning for two days now, and the rain is sending sulfuric acid to earth for 100km around the facility.
- Grumpy Uncle Gearhead