[ RadSafe ] Melting a reactor??

[John Grant]

Jane Fonda was busy at the  time.

On Jan 3, 2011, at 9:24 AM, Jerry Cohen wrote:

> I wonder why the NYT left out the part about melting through the  
> earth to China?
>
>
> Jerry Cohen
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Steven Dapra <sjd at swcp.com>
> To: radsafe at agni.phys.iit.edu
> Sent: Sun, January 2, 2011 6:15:57 PM
> 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