
Originally Posted by
acolyte_to_jippity
meltdown does not mean explosion. that's called an explosion. meltdown means just that; the radioactive fuel becomes so hot they actually melt/burn through their containment structure (literally 'melting down') SCRAMing isn't done to reduce heat (though often they'll perform those opperations in conjunction) it's designed to halt the fission taking place. it's done by lowering the control rods into the core in the fastest possible manner. depending on the method of SCRAM used, reactors could be started up easily, or with very much difficulty. the most common SCRAM involves shoving the control rods all the way into the core at one time, halting fission completely. backups for this (and possible primary systems, but i hope not) amount to basically dumping buckets of neutron-absorbing material into the core.
since water (even ion-rich sea-water) doesn't attenuate radiation very well, SCRAMing w/ seawater is not feasible. what they were probably doing, was pumping seawater into the coolant pipes to keep temperatures down while they fixe the main coolant system
Then what exactly happened at Chernobyl, is it the same thing Japan is experiencing.
Last edited by Holy-Sonic; 03-26-2011 at 12:54 AM.
Who are you? oh thats right your the shit talker... I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over how AWESOME I am.
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