[TGIAO]

If the explosion was strong enough to destroy the concrete containment building, is it not reasonable to assume that the “pipes” used to supply the reactor vessal were at least damaged, and therefore they are really going to have a hard time supply cooling water (even sea water) to the core?

[silverleaf]

again. not a nuc design expert and did not stay in Holiday Inn Express last month

but is it rational to assume all of the cooling “pipes” feeding the reactor core would be in the walls of the reactor building like the plumbing in your house?

The safety system is designed to absorb the loss of the reactor walls

So should not core cooling system “pipes” be encased and buried as is the reactor core?

Or that the Japanese have a workaround

Surely their safety engineers learned from the US mistakes at TMI, even if the systems are different

If this can all be contained there is not a more proficient and ingenious nation than Japan to do so

Now, ask why the IAEA has dithered around and watched the likes of Pakistan, North Korea and Iran become (military) nuclear powers. Better to have 6 meltdowns in Japan than ONE in any of those countries -maybe even China which has demonstrated an extraordinary lack of industrial and building code integrity