With regard to Miskin-

"So posting videos of an abviously non nuclear explosion and stating that it was nuclear is not scaremongering?"

(Gritting teeth) The hydrogen which ignited in an explosion in Unit 3 was a by-product of the meltdown of the fuel rods in reactor 3; the heated zirconium cladding chemically reacted with water, breaking it down into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, and other gases were released which were radioactive such as Iodine 131 and cesium-137 and were expelled in the explosion. That process is evidently not scary enough for Miskin.

But Miskin is correct, there is not yet proof of a criticality event (nuclear explosion), just a radiation disaster.

What made the explosion in Unit 3 even more worrisome, however, is that its fuel was uniquely (we hope) laced with Plutonium. Fortunately, Plutonium is not volatile but deadly when anyone runs across some when they're scrambling around the wreckage of Unit 3 trying to stabilize the reactor and its spent fuel pool.

And it is possible that the reactor was breached in Unit 3 but we'll only learn that for sure 5 to 10 years from now.

Now, can I administrate a quiz on what Miskin learned from the Three Mile Island accident and Chernobyl? Or should we just take a vote on it?

Charley Noble