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In reply to the discussion: So it turns out that nadinbrzezinski was correct re Fukushima [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Reactor Pressure Vessel integrity was assumed to be shit when it wouldn't hold water anymore. Pretty clear clue some or all of the fuel melted through the bottom of the RPV and landed in the catchment.
Most of the remaining argument was actually around whether the cerium would melt through the containment and escape. Gunderson, etc sure seemed confident it would, would encounter groundwater, and explode, throwing huge radioactive steam clouds.
Which, obviously, has not happened. The corium is hot as hell, no doubt, but it can't bore through the containment. So, we've just got to deal with the bits of highly radioactive material coming out of the cores, carried by water, since the steam condenser torus, and other parts of the containment aren't water tight anymore. (blown to crap with the hydrogen explosions)
I don't see the debate getting any better either, because a lot of the people commenting have no idea what RPV and containment actually constitutes.
Everyone was convinced of the meltdown within a couple weeks. Sucks, but it seems the coolant was knocked out by the quake, reactors scrammed and melting, before the tsunami even arrived.
Edit: Here's one of the ridiculous threads.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php/http/images/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x637239