By the way, I do not think we should assume the people working on this plant are inept or unprofessional. They made a terrible mistake not monitoring the pump, and not noticing that it had run out of fuel and stopped. However, I suppose that is the result of people working under extreme duress after a massive explosion. They must know that another mistake may kill them. Most of us would be frozen in panic and unable to count to 100 in such circumstances. Heck, I would be a basket case just having the Prime Minister on the phone demanding the latest news.
Trained professionals such as airplane pilots sometimes make stupid mistakes in duress. I think accidents with present-day nuclear reactors are too demanding. They call for inhuman levels of skill, and icy calm. On the other hand, nuclear technology is improving and it is becoming more fail-safe. Frankly, I am surprised this accident has gotten so far out of hand. I thought this was impossible. Before Three Mile Island, U.S. experts thought that an uncovered core andpartial melt-down was impossible. They made a lot of improvements and I thought a repeat of that accident with U.S. or Japanese technology would be extremely unlikely, but here it is happening. I still doubt that it will lead to a catastrophic melt-down and melt-through . . . but TEPCO and government officials have said that cannot be ruled out. Needless to say, it sure would be great to replace the whole system with cold fusion! - Jed
