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I have said for ages that in order for the events of Chernobyl to repeat themselves, all that needs to happen is for the cooling system of a power plant to fail and for the reactor to overheat. And I'm really, really hoping for their sake that it hasn't happened - Can you imagine how terrible that would be ontop of an earthquake and tsunami?
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You say that as if it's a small thing. Do you have any idea how many failsafes have to break down in modern nuclear plants in order for cooling systems to completely fail? The problem with Chernobyl was not just that they were overclocking the plant, it was that a seperate team had disabled part of the cooling system for maintenance and the Soviet beaurocracy meant that neither team was aware of what the other was doing.
What's more, plants being built today use lead as heat transfer medium rather than heavy water, so that if it leaks it will just cool off and solidify, rather than evaporate and spread in to the atmosphere. And Chinese researchers are working on using pellets of uranium enclosed in steel balls, which means that the plant can never overheat - if it gets too hot, the balls expand and thus increase the distance between the uranium blocks, slowing down the reaction.