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A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt [2]) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term nuclear meltdown is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency [3] or by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. [4]
The world's first nuclear reactor meltdown was the NRX reactor at Chalk River Laboratories, Ontario, Canada in 1952. [22] The worst nuclear accident to date is the Chernobyl disaster which occurred in 1986 in the Ukrainian SSR, now Ukraine. The accident killed approximately 30 people directly [23] and damaged approximately $7 billion of property.
Reactor decay heat shown as % of thermal power from time of sustained fission shutdown using two different correlations. Due to decay heat, solid fuel power reactors need high flows of coolant after a fission shutdown for a considerable time to prevent fuel cladding damage, or in the worst case, a full core meltdown.
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, damaged the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s cooling systems, causing three of its reactors to meltdown, releasing radiation and driving ...
The Three Mile Island accident was a partial nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor (TMI-2) of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.It happened on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
The contents of the three reactors is still largely a mystery. Little is known, for instance, about the melted fuel’s condition or exactly where it's located in the reactors.
The EBR-I, the first reactor to have a core meltdown, in 1955, was also a sodium-cooled reactor. Pebble-bed reactors (PBR) [moderator: graphite; coolant: helium] These use fuel molded into ceramic balls, and then circulate gas through the balls. The result is an efficient, low-maintenance, very safe reactor with inexpensive, standardized fuel.
KYIV (Reuters) -The world narrowly escaped a radiation disaster when electricity to Europe's largest nuclear power plant was cut off for hours, Ukraine's president said, urging international ...