[ RadSafe ] Melting a reactor??

[Dr. Francis Y. Tsang]

Dear RADSAFERS,

I would like to point out that shutting down the chain reactions in a
Nuclear Power plant is relatively easy and straight forward.  It is the
decay heat that is generated by the fission products that has to be dealt
with after the reactor is scrammed.  

During the 70s and through the 80s, there was a program sponsored by the US
NRC and DOE along with OECD countries that studied specifically the effects
of the "Loss of Coolant Experiments" (LOCE) at the Idaho National
Engineering Laboratory (INEL).

Two links to that program and related subjects are attached.

http://users.owt.com/smsrpm/nksafe/seventies.html

http://www.oecd-nea.org/nsd/reports/2009/nea6846_LOCA.pdf



-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu
[mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Steven Dapra
Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2011 6:16 PM
To: radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Melting a reactor??

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

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