Chernobyl was built using a Soviet RBMK reactor design. Because they have no containment vessel around the reactor core, RBMK reactors are fundamentally unsafe from a Western safety standards point of view. When there is a leak (or, as in the case of Chernobyl, a fire), there is nothing to prevent the leaking material - usually gas - from going right out into the atmosphere. U.S. reactor cores, by contrast, are housed inside giant concrete bunkers as containment vessels, so even if there is a leak inside the core, the chances of radioactive material - again, usually gas - leaking out into the atmosphere are very low.
More importantly, new reactor core designs use a totally different fuel system that greatly reduces the chances of any sort of core meltdown. For anyone who wants to bore themselves to tears, you can read all about reactor technology on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 9:07 PM, Scott S wrote: > FUD..right > > Reason to do due diligence and be cautious. However technology has changed > greatly since Chernobyl. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:262720 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
