Japanese reactor crisis

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Melissa

I've been following this as much as possible too. More in terms of the human element and suffering but also about the nuclear reactor, core meltdown and attempt to lower the temperature. There is a lot of info on the web and the news has been doing a good job of explaining how it all works, why the pumps stopped working, the failure of the backup generators, and how/why the meltdown happens. Can you post links to the articles you are reading?

Melissa

Melissa:

Part one, where I discussed the basics of how reactors work was mostly done off memory. Where I needed to look up some terms to make sure I was using them correctly and to just make sure I had not left out anything *critical* to understanding (obviously I oversimplified quite a bit) I checked against the 2008 Encyclopedia Britannica which I keep a copy of on my hard drive.

Part 2, where I discussed the TMI and Chernobyl I used Britannica again and Wikipedia's articles on the subject. My explanations are simplified distillations of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident

Part 3:

Questions 1 and 3 are operating off internal information. Question two was from memory and reality-checked against http://www.hss.energy.gov/HealthSafe...intro_9_5.html.

My updates are coming from

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12733393

Is that what you were asking for?

Cheers
Aj