Since the Japan earthquake hit, it seems like the story surrounding the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant has changed every 10 minutes, making it tough to keep up on the latest developments. Luckily there’s no shortage of informed individuals and organizations keeping track of what’s going on. While the situation regarding the reactor explosions is still very serious, the general consensus seems to be that there’s little threat of radiation exposure outside the nuclear reactor containment structures, and that any radiation emitted so far hasn’t been severe. But many have also gone to great lengths to explain the general science behind the nuclear reactors. Here’s the information you need from people who know… BBC has a good visual breakdown of the Fukushima plant. Blogger Jason Morgan reached out to Dr. Josef Oehmen, a research scientist at MIT, who explained the fundamental components of the nuclear reactor core:
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=113504