Fukushima Meltdown Might Have Come With Earthquake, Not Tsunami

Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

Fukushima Meltdown Might Have Come With Earthquake, Not Tsunami 172

Posted by timothy on Wednesday May 18, 2011 @05:03AM from the but-the-tsunami-helped dept.

formfeed writes "As the data from the Fukushima reactor is being reviewed it looks like the meltdown happened much earlier: '[T]he fuel rods in the No. 1 reactor were completely exposed to the air and rapidly heating five hours after the quake.' Apparently, the earthquake had caused a crack in the containment vessel. Which means, that even without the generators failing, the meltdown might still have happened. With this new data, it seems a similar incident could happen in an earthquake zone even without a tsunami."

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.