More on GE BWR designs
UPDATED 03/14/11 at 3:00 PM with more details from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
There are 23 nuclear power plants operating in the U.S. using the same General Electric Mark 1 reactors as the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant that suffered a hydrogen explosion on Saturday and another early Monday, according to a fact sheet released by the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, a Maryland-based nuclear power watchdog group.
This design has been criticized by nuclear experts and Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff for decades as being susceptible to explosion and containment failure.
In particular, experts say, if the cooling system is compromised plant operators are faced with the choice of releasing radioactive steam from the containment vessel in order to cool it and prevent a meltdown of the fuel rods at the core, which could result in the vessel rupturing and releasing a disastrous amount of radiation.
Cheers,
Scott.