In like manner, I believe that reactors should be designed such that an earthquake of any magnitude could not destroy the reactor or its containment shell, further that if the reactor core was to start to melt down, the melt down itself would shut the reactor down and, at the very worst, the reactor would entomb itself with no potential release of radiation into the environment.
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The reactor vessels remained intact as did the reinforced concrete containment buildings, but each reactor building lost its hat due to the hydrogen explosions.
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In that accident, the lack of a containment vessel surrounding the reactor meant radioactive materials from the accident were spread far and wide.
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In a reactor, the containment structure may melt.
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The containment dome of the first reactor is designed to withstand pressures of only 7 pounds per square inch, compared with 50 psi in American-style reactors, leaving the Juragua dome exponentially weaker than an American reactor even in the event that the dome functions perfectly as designed, an unlikely prospect in the current situation.
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From Kyodo News: The containment vessel for No. 3 reactor may be damaged.
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When the Chernobyl reactor in the Ukraine melted down, an entire reactor with virtually no containment system exploded, spewing huge amounts of radioactive material into the air, where they were blown by the wind into habitable areas.
The plant's operator, Tepco, had intended to cool reactor 1 by filling the containment chamber with water.
In late March, Tepco said readings of airborne radiation inside the containment vessel at the No. 2 reactor had surged to a deadly 79 sieverts, the highest level since the crisis began March 11 last year.
In 2002, Tepco admitted to the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency that it had falsified the results of safety tests on the containment vessel of the No. 1 reactor, which is now one of three reactors that workers are struggling to keep from overheating.
As many as 15 percent of the 5, 000 previously approved welds in the reactor's auxiliary plumbing, containment dome and spent-fuel cooling systems were X-rayed and found to be defective due to air pockets, poor soldiering and heat damage.
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Tuesday's explosion at the No. 2 reactor in the Fukushima complex, 150 miles north of Tokyo, for the first time raised the possibility that the key containment structure of the unit, which protects the reactor vessel and keeps dangerous radioactive materials from leaking out, had been damaged.
This rectangular secondary containment building is the structure that most people have seen in pictures of the reactor.
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