Exactly right, and exactly the reason the containment vessel is there. The concern regarding a meltdown has always been the possibility that containment will be breached, and that the material in the core will escape to the environment outside of the containment. (The “China syndrome” scenario.)
The reactor vessel, which is the container that directly holds the fissionable material and control rod assembly on the core, seems to have ruptured. But the containment vessel, which is a metal container enclosing the reactor vessel, does not appear to have ruptured, and continues to contain the reactor material.
My guess is that since the containment vessel held up to the earthquake and whatever event caused the rupture of the reactor vessel, it will continue to hold.
Note that the spectre of Three Mile Island has already been brought up. A nuclear disaster that resulted in… umm, well, no deaths or injuries. But people get it mixed up with the movie “The China Syndrome” and hey, when you’re just wigging out and fearful, fact and fiction are all the same.
Thanks xenophon, nice to get some technical input and I agree, the comparison will be illuminating.
In a world where data mattered and critical analysis was taken seriously, this incident should act as an endorsement of nuclear power.
Multiple cataclysmic natural disasters and the worst that happens is a handful of casualties and release of short-lived isotopes.
I’m not negating the individual tragedy of those deaths but when weighed against the doom-mongers scenarios it isn’t judgement day.
Okay, so… what we have here is the most complicated, expensive, safest most secure form of energy immaginable in the whole history of humankind and we have to sit back and wait from a safe distance while the experts make guesses as to what might be going on inside.
“Hmm,” makes ya go.
Everyone here forgotten Hiroshima & Nagasaki? Ooh, I’ll never understand why people get so worked up about nuclear explosions. Don’t they understand how safe they are???
Here in the US we live in a country where you can’t be president if you’re not a very strong God believer and church goer. Not only that, you have to be the right religion. No Catholics, Jews, Muslims need apply and atheist? Ha, ha, ha!
And you’re depressed because your brethren don’t understand nuclear physics? Did I mention the experts themselves are keeping a safe distance and don’t know what’s actually going on inside their own creation?
A) You don’t take unnecessary risks with nuclear power
B) You start imagining the worst and dial back the restrictions as more info becomes available (the opposite of 3 mile island)
C) “guess” has a variable value depending on who makes it
E) what happened to D?
D) ah, there it is.
However, it might be the nuclear power industries Apollo 13.
Lets say nothing further bad happens. No major radiation leak. Damage isnt as bad as it appears it could possibly be.
Yeah, the wackos will still raise hell. But, hey, they never stopped did they? But many middle of the road people might think “Jesus, if an 8.9 AND a big ass Tsunami at the same time can’t cause a serious nuclear accident, maybe these modern designs ARE pretty durn safe”.
They are wearing dust masks with their faces exposed? You think that this is evidence of people trying to protect themselves from nuclear radiation? Do you have some kind of brain damage?
Ha! I didn’t even follow the link earlier because I was working under the (perhaps incorrect) assumption that levdrakon is not in fact brain-damaged and had linked to people wearing actual radiation protection gear.
