Quote Originally Posted by Steamer View Post
The control rods stop the fission reaction. You still have the radioactive decay to cool no matter what. Once fission is stopped this reactor still roughly produces 5%? production from radioactive decay. This reactor is ancient in this day and age.
this

bsically, we don't get electricity from radiation. the way it works is that the fuel undergoes fission, which produces heat. lots, and LOTS of heat. this heat is high enough to cause the metal caseing of the core to spontaneously combust, BUT there are pipes of coolant flowing all through the core. this coolant absorbs the heat, and becomes super hot. the coolant pipes lead out from the core and water (plain water) is exposed to these now super hot pipes. that makes steam, which turns turbines.

the control rods only absorb radioactive particles, so they stop the fission. BUT it's still hot as fuck. a SCRAM (term used for emergency shutdown of a reactor) doesn't cool it immediately, it simply halts the production of radioactive shit. After all, to take something as hot as a reactor core and cool it down in a short time, even a whole day would cause the entire unit to explode (hot suddenly cold = shatter)

tl;dr the news media is blowing this out of proportion. they've been pumping seawater in to maintain core integrity. it's fine