Replies

If anything, the TMI accident sequence indicated that accident analysis is probably overly conservative. That much core damage and energy release would have led many to believe that a slow-evolution vessel breach should have occurred. That it did not is probably evidence that our assumptions and accident models have a fair amount of conservatism built into them.

In essence, TMI was a LOCA without ECCS (the operators turned it off) that resulted in a core melt --- but the China Syndrome did not happen. The core puddled in the bottom of the reactor vessel but did not breach it.

When I first saw the photos inside that vessel years later, I was totally amazed and it turned out the vessel was far more robust than anyone at the time thought.