Thursday, March 31, 2011

"U.S. Dropped Nuclear Rule Meant to Avert Hydrogen Explosions"

Scary headline, scary picture.
From the New York Times:

The Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania on Monday, 32 years to the date after an accident there. When hot fuel interacted with steam there, the plant's suffered a hydrogen explosion. 
Associated Press  
The Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania on Monday, 
32 years to the day after an accident there. When hot fuel
interacted with steam there, a reactor suffered a hydrogen blast.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has allowed reactors to phase out some equipment that eliminates explosive hydrogen, the gas that blew up the outer containments of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. The commission says it judged that at the American plants, the containments were strong enough that the equipment was not needed or other methods would do....MORE