[ RadSafe ] Fukushima Daiichi reactor explosion

[Doug Huffman]

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The Fukushima plants are fully shutdown, rods normally inserted.

They are overheating on decay heat from delayed spontaneous fission (not
neutron induced).  IIRC decay heat represents ~7% reactor power at
shutdown and decays at a rate determined by the power history.

Doug Huffman
Shift Test Engineer
retired since 1995
with fading memories

On 3/12/2011 08:23, Michael LaFontaine, P. Phys. wrote:
> The following report appeared on http://www.stratfor.com/, they also
> have footage of the explosion.
> 
>
> A meltdown occurs when the control rods fail to contain the neutron
> emission and the heat levels inside the reactor thus rise to a point
> that the fuel itself melts,
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