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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room
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To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (147653)3/18/2011 12:27:37 PM
From: ChanceIs  Read Replies (1) of 206089
 
RE: Chernobyl Vice Fukushima

I think that article left a lot out. I may be wrong on this, but I am pretty confident.

1) At Chernobyl the core actually exploded. There was a spike of energy liberated inside the core/fuel, and the fuel exploded from the inside outward. It surely seems that at Fukushima that the explosions have occurred well outside the core, probably between the building and containment.

2) I am rather sure that Chernobyl did not have a containment. It surely had a pressure vessel which held the core/fuel. It also had an outer building shell. When Chernobyl blew, the pressure vessel was shattered, and the building housing spread to the winds - not hard because it was merely designed to keep the rain out. Fukushima surely has the "containment" an additional safety enclosure between the pressure vessel and building walls which was not present at Chernobyl.

3) I don't think that anybody knows if the pressure vessel at Fukushima has been breached. I would only give it a 15% probability. I don't think they know if the containment has been breached. I would only give that a 1% probability.

4) For sure the core at Fukushima didn't explode. The fission reaction was stopped int he bud. The only possible evolution after that would be for the disintegration heat of the unstable daughter nuclei to cause a fuel melt down. There would be some pressure rise associated with that. The pressure vessel is fitted with pressure relief valves to keep the pressure within safe limits. You really don't want to open those because radioactive material can then be entrained in a gas stream flowing out of the pressure vessel. Obviously a series of small pressure releases is better than the pressure vessel splitting open.

At Three Mile Island, one of the pressure relief valves open and stuck open. With the pressure down within the vessel, the remaining water boiled away more quickly than it would have otherwise leading to an exposure of the core and fuel rod burning/melting. I am rather sure that the pressure vessel there was not close to being breached. A whole lot of bad stuff did escape from the pressure vessel into the containment through the valve.

5) Chernobyl didn't have the fuel storage issue that Fukushima does. The difficulties at Fukushima are pretty bifurcated: the core overheat and the pool boiling are basically separate problems. They are however both "crapping up" the common physical access making mitigation efforts near impossible. You will never see fuel rods stored inside the same building as a reactor ever again. If that is the case in the US - which I doubt - I would venture to guess that the rods would be moved within a month.
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