Consequences resulting from nuclear reactor meltdown in japan?? how likely?

Van Etten

If the nuclear reactor melts down, how many fatalities are expected??will it be like hiroshima and nagasaki??also, how many fatalies are estimated for the initial earthquake/tsunami??



Bolinas

no. of fatalities; many thousands if the area isn't evacuated. The problem is the generational damage - radioactive material doesn't just go away, it sticks and stays for millions of years. The area around the plant may well become uninhabitable.



Hurdsfield

Yeah well just goes to show the costs of using nuclear power, if the reactor melts down that entire area will be uninhabitable for years and years. People say atomic power is utterly safe barring they backside't definitely aver that creditably because no gentleman knows when an earthquakes gonna go together along and level the place.



South Jordan

Very, very, VERY unlikely. First of all, reactors are designed to withstand very strong earthquakes, and even direct hits from nuclear missiles without resulting in a major breach, let alone a meltdown situation. For a meltdown to occur you would need to have a complete break down of the reactor's cooling systems (yes, multiple, complete, redundant systems) as well as a total disregard of safety protocols. Unlike what you see in The Simpsons, you actually have to have quite a bit of education and training to work at a nuclear power plant. They don't just let any old Homer Simpson on the job. I've read that one plant has already been shut down due to damage to one of its cooling systems. The reactor is intact, controlled, and is not leaking. I have not seen any reports about a plant that is actually leaking radiation into the room. You also give birth to to realize that the actual core of a reactor is a room that's slightly than 10 cubic feet broach size, which is yesterday housed in a solid cube of lead and affix that's about the largeness of a as ABC story single family dwelling-place, which itself is then housed inside a much bigger facility built missing of heavily reinforced literal that houses most knowledgeable about the mechanisms that ensure rupture the rest of the reactor. Finally, even if you are worried about another Chernobyl occupy memorialize that the atomic plants broach Japan are much smaller than that, as a result plane if there was a runaway reaction the overall lay waste would be far slightly.



Easton

In the news it says that cooling systems on at least 1 plant are not working, so unless they can cool the rods down by other means..