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dpb

wrote:
TMI-2 was virtually a non-accident: �A small volume of irradiated steam was
released to the atmosphere. �There was no injury to any thing or any one.

Nothing external to the plant, yes--they did melt the core to about
2/3rds but it was all contained in the vessel...

could of been much worse if cooling hadnt been restored..... there was
concern of a explosion in the containment too

All it took to restore cooling was to turn the RCP (reactor coolant
pumps) back on. They had been shut off (manually) owing to operator
error and misinterpretation of instrumentation data. Once forced
circulation was reestablished, the situation was stabilized.

There was far more concern in the media over the "H-bubble" than there
was in reality.

The Soviet Union's idea of containment at Chernobyl (and others to this day)
is the equivalent of a metal-sided pole shed.

There was no containment at Chernobyl--there was no idea that it was
anything other than weather protection. Not a good design, but then
again, in their regime they could do as they saw fit.

OTOH, at their LWRs (Westinghouse design copies) they have containments
same as any other.

I haven't checked for certain, but I believe all the Chernobyl-style
reactors have been retired.

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