[mvpel]

There is, however, the possibility that this might happen. If that happens, radioactive fuel (uranium) would be released to the outside (it first would melt into a molten blob of metal at the bottom of the containment vessel. The metal would eventually melt through the bottom and be released to burn its way into the ground. If it did this, it would be a matter of time until it hit ground water. The ground water would then be made into radioactive steam that would shoot explosively into the atmosphere. The steam cloud would then drift with the wind –probably towards North America.

Bullshit. And that's as politely as I can put it.

Chernobyl was an absolute worst-case scenario with an uncontained nuclear reactor melting down, and the melted core flowed across the concrete in the basement, not down into the earth.

That blob there, photographed by a remote-operated camera, is melted corium - nuclear fuel mixed with other core materials. If you were standing right there you'd die an horrible but quick death from the heat and radiation.

And look at this - the melted core couldn't even melt this steel steam pipe, let alone the bedrock:

It just flowed out the pipe onto the floor.

The melted core is only generating enough heat to melt itself, not enough to melt much of what's around it. And the containment is designed so that a melted core does not collect into a blob and go critical to generate more heat, but rather to spread out and dissipate it to keep it from going super-critical.

Repeat after me: "The China Syndrome was just a movie. The China Syndrome was just a movie."

[lonevoice]

Wow. Thank you so much for the post and for those graphics. It really does help to put things in perspective.

[CedarDave]

Grrrr. Cavuto has some expert (with an agenda) who is stirring the pot by saying “there is no safe level of radiation” and goes on to talk about the half-life and dangers of plutonium. Maybe true, but you don’t start off your interview by saying that. (e.g. He didn’t say when you walk outside you get radiation, when you fly in a plane you get more, you live at 5,000 feet elevation you get more than you do at sea level, etc. etc.)

[Mr. Silverback]

Awesome post!

[SteamShovel]

Repeat after me: "The China Syndrome was just a movie. The China Syndrome was just a movie."

I can't believe the chicken little syndrome that is spreading like wildfire here at FR.

Thank you for the informative post. I have been trying to speak reason and calm on this subject too but have not seemed to be able to penetrate the fog of panic. The information you give is readily available for people to read about on their own, but they seem content to panic and scream that TEPCO and Japan are somehow conspiring to keep information from them.

TEPCO and Japan are doing their best to handle THREE DAMAGED REACTORS probably with limited crews that are dog tired.

Please understand that they are doing the best they can under very difficult circumstances. The world isn't going to end over this.

[Age of Reason]

So if the Japanese reactors are so safe that even if the cores melt, they will be contained and the heat disspated by the molten core spreading out over a large but contained area, then . . . .

. . . why are the Japanese so desperate to cool the reactors down?

I mean, why risk the lives of the workers and instead just walk away and let the thing melt if there’s no harm in that?

[oneolcop]

Thanks for your comment. I notice that you didn’t bother to reassure the lady in any manner. I did address her concerns as well as I could with the five minutes I spent on the computer this morning.

[lonevoice]

The pictures I mentioned to you of Chernobyl's melted core are at post #112 (click here)

Amazing.