While the premise of the movie - that a tornado can cause a nuclear reactor to go into a near meltdown - is a bit far fetched, I find it funny that so many of the reviewers (including some who confidently claimed they worked in the industry) thought the possibility of a reactor going unstable due to a natural disaster was "impossible".
I wonder what they would say today, with FOUR of Japan's nuclear reactors going hot. Obviously, cascading failures ARE not only possible, but under the right circumstances (or the most horrific collection of bad luck), probable.
Granted, it wasn't a tornado. Heck, it wasn't even the earthquake itself that caused Japan's nukes to go hot. It was the tsunami that followed the quake that led to the disastrous failure of not one, not two, but FOUR reactors. So far the Japanese are barely keeping the rods covered with water - sea water, because they have no pumps to pump in the fresh water that should be used (JUST like in the movie). Even so, 3 of the 4 plants have now suffered major explosions that blew the roof off - literally - and all are emitting unacceptable radiation levels just from the steam releases alone.
Turns out the writer of this script was a lot more prescient than anyone gave them credit for when the movie came out! Let's just hope that the ending of Japan's very real nuclear crisis is as good as the ending of the movie - or else it is not just Japan that will pay the price for our foolish arrogance.
I wonder what they would say today, with FOUR of Japan's nuclear reactors going hot. Obviously, cascading failures ARE not only possible, but under the right circumstances (or the most horrific collection of bad luck), probable.
Granted, it wasn't a tornado. Heck, it wasn't even the earthquake itself that caused Japan's nukes to go hot. It was the tsunami that followed the quake that led to the disastrous failure of not one, not two, but FOUR reactors. So far the Japanese are barely keeping the rods covered with water - sea water, because they have no pumps to pump in the fresh water that should be used (JUST like in the movie). Even so, 3 of the 4 plants have now suffered major explosions that blew the roof off - literally - and all are emitting unacceptable radiation levels just from the steam releases alone.
Turns out the writer of this script was a lot more prescient than anyone gave them credit for when the movie came out! Let's just hope that the ending of Japan's very real nuclear crisis is as good as the ending of the movie - or else it is not just Japan that will pay the price for our foolish arrogance.
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