

Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors. - bensummers
http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/

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incredulist
It appears that there is some disagreement in the comments section as to the
veracity of the posters claims.

Particularly as to whether Fukushima 1 is actually built to the standards the
doctor is claiming it is, i.e. whether it actually has a core-catcher or not.

The wikipedia entry for Fukushima 1 is pretty sparse. Does anyone have any
information they can weigh in with on this?

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tinloaf
There are more points that are questionable in that article:
<http://bit.ly/fWCuAV>

~~~
ChuckMcM
The counter points don't hold up.

1) The 'core catcher' is the bottom of the containment building. This reactor
was built by GE.

There is a diagram of the reactor in Google Books:
[http://books.google.com/books?id=y20F8Yt6UcMC&pg=PA34...](http://books.google.com/books?id=y20F8Yt6UcMC&pg=PA34&dq=general+electric+reactor+design&hl=en&ei=e5B-TbzOOI76swODysyTBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=general%20electric%20reactor%20design&f=false)

Not sure if that will make it through the HN editor but its worth a look.
Would love to get a scan of that diagram online. In 'flask type' reactors the
re-inforced concrete pad under the reactor 'catches' the core (if necessary)

2) Its important to understand that since the reactor is shut down, its only
source of heat is the decay products from when it was running, minus the heat
they pulled off while running on battery power. Further the engineering design
target (one assumes they test to that target) is that if you integrate over
all the heat you generate from all the byproducts from a reactor that was
running at 'full' and now has all of its control rods inserted, is less than
the heat you would need to add to melt the containment vessel (the flask) You
won't be able to restart it but you won't have the core melt through the
vessel either.

His third point, he doesn't understand that long lived radionuclides aren't
aerosols. Which is to say they stay in the containment vessel they don't exit
with the steam. The impurities in the ocean water need understanding here but
we're not talking a significant long term threat.

Number 4 he missed out on what radiation was measured, what the relative value
of that radiation was and the how it won't persist. These are gamma rays that
can make other things radioactive.

Anyway, if you have the book (I don't) it apparently describes the reactor in
question in some detail.

