Are the nuclear reactors in japan located underground?

Rimersburg

http://www. nytimes. com/2011/03/22/world/…The reason I ask is that in this photograph of Unit No. 3, there appears to be very little left but smoldering ruins. Is this part just the outer shell, and is the actual containment vessel underground?



East Palo Alto

Here is an informative article describing the situation, it also has some diagrams: http://bravenewclimate. com/2011/03/13/fu…Note that the explosions were hydrogen gas explosions and were outside the containment vessel (unlike Chernobyl which had the hydrogen gas explosion inside the containment vessel because of poor reactor design). They blew away the outer shell of the building, but that's not part of the containment process. Given that the forty year old power plants were first subject to an earthquake five times the force they were designed for and then they were hit with a tsunami, they're actually doing incredibly well. It says a lot for the safety of nuclear power.



Atwood

Good question, but my understanding is the containment building is above ground and intact. I suspect the picture just doesn't show the containment building. The areas in the most trouble, from what I've read, were the spent fuel storage pools, which would be outside the containment building. The explosion (non-nuclear) might have cause the ruin shown in the picture. I would not trust the N. Y. Times to show an informative (rather than argumentative) picture.



Teaticket

nope all 6 are top ground see pic from google search. IT'S DOMED i call it operation sandman drop sand bag full of lead in the holes and make a concrete dome around the core's and fill it with concrete and a foot of lead on the outside to keep the radiation leakage low. http://www. techmagdaily. com/google-earth…http://www. wired. co. uk/news/archive/2011…http://www. bighaber. com/haber/3-nuclear-…