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-…

They raised the legal radiation limit in japan? are people going to die?

Frankfort

I just saw a report that said that they raised the legal allowed radiation limit because the radiation from reactor 3 was too high to legally let nuclear workers through to help cool down reactor 4, so they raised the legal limit to get people to go there. wtf?? Are these people going to get really sick? The legal limit for nuclear workers was already double that of the general population before they raised it.



Tarrant

japanese are all superheroes. even if they die, they'll come back as sumo mecha killers and crush the opponent! SONNO JOI!!



Accident

Why aren't they using robots? Why does nuclear power exist at all? It's a very very bad idea, very bad. People are definitely going to die of this yes, nuclear power should be illegalized world-wide.



Vidalia

Does anyone realize that ALL of these workers are probably getting a lethal dose of radiation? I've done the math--if they are measuring 12.5microSV 80 km away, then they are getting more than 80,000 within 1km. at a football field's distance, they will get 8,000,000--which is lethal. These workers are giving their lives.



Bishopville

It's either they do that and try to cool down the reactor or they don't and let it explode. I'll take option A.