It’s been difficult for me to monitor the Japan’s nuclear crisis with any solid grasp of what is actually happening because many news articles fail to provide an introductory explanation of what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant before reporting on what is taking place there now.
- It’s even harder to fully understand what is going on when watching coverage of the crisis on television because the news anchors often provide the latest information and conduct interviews with experts under the assumption that the viewing audience already knows about everything that has happened and understands what the latest information means.
The following short video has helped me to gain a much greater understanding of what happened at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Link I thought I would share this video since this is not an easy subject to understand for many people, including myself.
The video mentions that fuel rods can melt if they cannot be cooled, but does not explain why melting fuel rods are a problem.
- The sense I got after reading this article is that radioactive material is released when the fuel rods melt.
The article also notes that the vast majority of fuel rods at the plant are located in storage pools, and that the (spent) fuel rods in the storage pools pose a greater threat than the fuel rods inside the reactor cores.
- This would explain why the Japanese are attempting to spray water in the storage pools via helicopter and water cannon: they are trying to cool down the (spent) fuel rods in the storage pool with the temperature-modifying effects of water.
I hope the video above helps people to better understand why there are major problems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and helps people to better understanding the information that comes out in the future about the situation at the plant. I hope and pray that the brave Japanese workers who are risking their lives to keep the situation under control are successful…
