Slashdot Mirror
Nuclear Risk Expert: Fukushima Fuel May Be Leaking
An anonymous reader writes "Three weeks after the nuclear crisis began at Japan's Fukushima Dai-1 power plant, there's still a real danger of melted nuclear fuel escaping the reactor buildings and releasing a large dose of radiation. So says Theo Theofanous, an engineer who spent 15 years studying the risks of nuclear reactors. Theofanous believes that melted nuclear fuel has already leaked through the reactor vessels and accumulated at the bottoms of the primary containment structures. All attempts to keep the reactor buildings cool may not be enough to prevent the overheated fuel from eating through the concrete floors, he says."
This is a plant that shouldn't be operating in the first place right now. This series of nuclear reactors is past its expiration date and therefore can't be expected to perform under the duress of an earthquake and following flooding. There always was a plan to lock them up for one last time after which its supposed to be unbreakable (or anybody who does break it would be dead from radiation near instantly) but there never was any other plan for renewing it after it had run for too long.
Sorry Japan, we love electric power just as much as you do, but you've got to pay for what it takes to make it. Doing it on the cheap just causes other problems for humans in other areas than your own.