[ RadSafe ] Melting a reactor??

[Steven Dapra]

Jan. 2

	This quote is from an editorial page article written by Charles 
Faddis and published in the NY Times.

"But there's no way to quickly shut off a reactor: the heat that 
builds up inside it is so intense that even if something goes wrong, 
cooling water must continue to circulate through its systems for days 
before it is safe.

"If the cooling system malfunctions, even if the rest of the plant is 
operating safely, the heat will literally melt the reactor and its 
concrete containment shell, releasing radioactive gas into the 
atmosphere  in other words, a partial nuclear meltdown like that at 
Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 1979."

	Is it true that reactor heat will melt the containment vessel ("shell")?

	The link to the Faddis' NYT article is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/opinion/06Faddis.html?_r=1

Steven Dapra