Biotech Values

[OakesCS]

thanks much. that is an excellent piece. i only have 2 minor nitpicks: 1) the Chernobyl reactor's graphite core ignited and that was one of the principle problems in that case (C+O2=CO2 and there was a lot of graphite vs zero in Fukushima) and 2) the use of seawater may not be as trivial as portrayed. While most of the H2 was probably produced by radiolysis, some of it was probably produced by hydrolysis. Seawater would probably accelerate the corrosion reactions and conceivably cause plugging of vents/valves both from salt precipitation and corrosion.

As an aside: in the 1st reactor explosion you can briefly see a condensation cloud (what most people would probably call a 'shock wave') yet there is no visible flame. That's a clear indication of a hydrogen explosion. Most of the "smoke" cited by the CNN et al. crowd is not smoke but rather concrete dust and other particulate crap.

Another potentially pesky problem is that according to some diagrams i've seen of reactors similar to those at Fukushima is that the used fuel rod storage pools are immediately adjacent to the reactor. I don't think those are protected nearly as well as the reactor core and I'm wondering what bad things could happen if the explosion drained the pool or caused the rods to collapse onto each other at the bottom of the pool.

oops: edit. now see exwannabe covered that last point