Effects of a Nuclear Meltdown
February 27, 2012 | Nature
The peaceful use of nuclear energy is produced by nuclear fission. During the last two years more than 430 nuclear power plants are on stream producing about 15% of the world’s electrical power requirements.
Most people welcome this technology as it represents a low cost alternative to burning fossil fuels. Others are a bit more apprehensive and question the safety of these power plants, remembering only too well the accidents which occurred in recent times at Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island.
Nuclear reactors contain many controls and moderating materials to avoid the reactor from overheating and running out of control. But certainly in any reactor whose cooling procedures failed the core would become would become a metallic blob capable of melting through anything. The effects of a nuclear meltdown are as follows. –
- Explosion. The reactor fuel is not refined to the same degree as for nuclear weapons, so no nuclear explosion would occur from a highly heated reactor. The build up of super heated gases would in fact blow the reactor apart, leaking quantities of nuclear radiation, as was the situation in the Ukraine.
- Nuclear Fallout. Any explosion of the reactor would create many radioactive particles which would travel on the wind, eventually falling to the ground causing radioactive contamination for miles around the site of the explosion.
- Breach of Containment Vessel. The nuclear reactor is sited in a concrete containment building. If the reactor does become super heated and suffer a core meltdown, the core of molten material has the capability of penetrating through the floor of the building.
- China Syndrome. It has been conjectured that in the event of a reactor meltdown, the molten core, having passed through the floor of the containment building could travel on down, penetrating the earth’s crust for a considerable distance. Theoretically this is possible, but in reality would not happen, since much of the heat would be dissipated into the surrounding earth material after traveling only a few meters.