“Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest” via ABC World News

Thirty-five years ago, Dale G. Bridenbaugh and two of his colleagues at General Electric resigned from their jobs after becoming increasingly convinced that the nuclear reactor design they were reviewing — the Mark 1 — was so flawed it could lead to a devastating accident.

Questions persisted for decades about the ability of the Mark 1 to handle the immense pressures that would result if the reactor lost cooling power, and today that design is being put to the ultimate test in Japan. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which has been wracked since Friday’s earthquake with explosions and radiation leaks, are Mark 1s.

“The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant,” Bridenbaugh told ABC News in an interview. “The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release.”

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7 Responses to “Fukushima: Mark 1 Nuclear Reactor Design Caused GE Scientist To Quit In Protest” via ABC World News

  1. entrepreneur says:

    We have to accept this articles very carefully.GE says that the reason why nuclear accident occurred in Fukushima is not to operate nuclear power plants but to continue using nuclear power plant which built forty years ago.The technology which used for number one reactor of nuclear power plant in Fukushima was very old.We should stop operating all nuclear power plants and test them. And if there are problem at any nuclear power plants ,the plants have to be maintenanced by using latest safety technology as soon as possible.We have to depend on nuclear power plants to satisfy the demand of electricity,we should take action.If necessary,we should ask GE scientists to corperate with the maintenance.

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