What would happen is simply an uncontrolled nuclear reaction...once it gets to that stage, you just lock up the building, move the people away and never go back.
That's what happened at 3 mile island...partial core failure (meltdown) followed by an uncontrolled nuclear reaction.

The outer layer containment buildings are there for that purpose. If there's nothing else you can do you just leave it.
Chernobyl was so bad because the roof of the containment building wasn't constructed properly, so when the meltdown happened the roof was blown clean off.

Worst case scenario for Japan would be if the containment buildings were compromised by the earthquake...then we'd just have radiation leaking freely into the environment.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

so basically they need to be checking out the containment buildings for structural damage and possibly gearing up to walk away from a 6 reactor facility... wow... thats not good... and how much of an area (radius) would that containment (if the containment buildings are sound)... would towns have to be premaritally evacuated? Would they ever be able to go back to that plant? scary scary stuff in all...

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Well, if the containment is 100%, people could still live relevantly close by although I doubt many would want to.
If it ends up being anything like 3 mile island, once the situation has stabilized inside the building, they could send in robots in a cleanup effort to contain and remove remaining fuel, but the building itself is toast for thousands of years.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

i read they were tearing down TMI 2 when the building is decommissioned in 2034.

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If the containment buildings are good, then they are safe enough.

TMI 2 was going to get torn down when the lease expired a few years ago, but since it was renewed we'll have to wait.

Chernobyl operated even after their disaster occurred for 15 years or so. The other reactors were fine.

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TMI-1 is still operating.

The damaged core of TMI-2 was removed years ago, and the rest of the contamination on the site has been contained for years. They're not going to fuck with it unless they absolutely have to.

Finally some better news
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110316/ap_ ... hquake_217

They've almost completed a new power line that will restore function to the original electric pumps.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

OK, that is great. I hope there isn't a crack in the main housing like a designer eluded too, or a fully powered cooling system may not even be enough. If there is a crack(s), I hope full power will work until all of that is repaired somehow.

May the nerds be with us.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

Maybe someone can enlighten me, because I don't know anything about nuclear reactors...but why were they build so close to the water in Japan? For a country that is familiar with earthquakes and has immense preparations for them, it is puzzling to me that the nuclear reactors were built so close to the shore.

And the other night on the news they were doing stories about nuclear power plants in California, and they are built right on the shore as well...

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

So they have easy access to water. You need water of either a lake, river, or ocean to cool the reactors.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/wl_nm/us_japan_quake
Might get buried in sand and concrete to prevent radiation leaks.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookou ... sive-quake
Amazing...

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

It just seems like it would make more sense to build them by a river or a lake then, especially in an area like Japan that's prone to earthquakes and tsunamis...building them by an ocean just seems dangerous.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

yeah, they have several on lake erie. theres one just south of detroit. it melted down in the 60s, and they even wrote a book about it called "we almost lost detroit."
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but the cooling towers are water cooled, usually.

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