First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima plant

Re:First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima ... by cm2187 on Friday February 15, 2019 @05:43PM (#19175434)

Also we should keep in mind that the major incidents involed reactors designed in the 60s/early 70s, when nuclear energy was still very new. It's like wanting to ban planes because of the safety records of planes from the 1930s. It is because plane designs iterated, learning from our mistakes over time, that it became an extremely safe technology.

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Re:First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima ... by Intermernet on Friday February 15, 2019 @05:57PM (#19175529)

When were the majority of reactors operating today designed? Serious question. I actually want to know.

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Re:First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima ... by acidburnNSA on Friday February 15, 2019 @06:14PM (#19175647)

1960s and 1970s mostly. Chernobyl was designed earlier. Fukushima was a super early design. The real flaw there was they put the backup generator fuel supply in the basement in a flood zone. The reactor was designed for the US midwest, with tornados in mind as the biggest threat. Moving to Japan, they should have put at least some of the backup fuel above ground level and it would have been fine.

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Re:First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima ... by pvaldes on Saturday February 16, 2019 @06:14AM (#19178138)

The flaws in an earlier design can't be a justification for absence of upgrade. Since 1960 we had build thousands of structures higher than 150m. Skyscrapers are not exactly a novely. We have the tools and the knowledge.

They had 51 years, 51! to raise a damned wall 20 m. Had all the new information, improved models, latest computers and warnings... and they didn't do anything. Neither Tesco, nor the Japanese government were able to see it coming. Their lack of vision is really infuriating.

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