Mark Carver wrote:
Zero Tolerance wrote:
On Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:24:01 +0100, "Norman Wells"
wrote:

Then they're all unbelievably stupid, regardless of their
qualifications. Where on earth did they get the idea to which the
words China Syndrome are meant to relate? What were those words
meant to convey?

Maybe 'china' as in "fragile container, easily broken, resulting in
possibly disastrous loss of contents" ?

No, my understanding is that in a nuclear core melt down there's nothing
to stop it burning its way through through the planet and popping out
the other side (which of course gravity wouldn't allow). Do that from
the US, and you end up in China (except you wouldn't, it would be the
middle of the Indian Ocean.



except of course that it wouldn't work that way.

Once the core really melted, it wouldn't stay coherent enough to
maintain fission.

Its possible to design a reactor that stops fissioning when it gets too
hot as well. See pebble bed reactors.

every reactor problem has actually resulted in a serious FIRE as well
with the graphite moderators catching alight, and the general mess that
results more or less stops fissioning as well. Its nasty, its dirty, but
it wont melt its way to the center of the earth, although if it did, it
would be pretty safe, cos the evidence is that that is where all the
fissile uranium sits, helping keep your world warm, anyway.