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So I asked my son: "Do you know what the 'China Syndrome' is?"

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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 11:53 AM
Original message
So I asked my son: "Do you know what the 'China Syndrome' is?"
I was reading about Fukushima, and gasped about the bad news. My son (19 yo) asked: "What happened?" I said something like: "They think the 'China Syndrome' may have happened at Fukushima. Do you know what the China Syndrome is?"

He replied....

Wait for it.....

"Um, I dunno. Having only 1 kid?"

Good guess, I suppose.

* sighs *
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KittyWampus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 11:54 AM
Response to Original message
1. pretty good answer.
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Odin2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
2. Crazy hysterical fears about radiactive material going through the Earth.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:00 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Seeing as no one has any real clear idea as to where the core of #1 has ended up, exactly
you may want to hold off momentarily on calling stuff "crazy".
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Goblinmonger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:01 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. I think it's in my garage
right next to the freezer.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:04 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. Cool!
I mean, Hot!
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Goblinmonger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Yep, it is seriously melting my fudge bars.
And that's pissing me off.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. It's harmless.
Just like a banana. Radiation is good for you, even.
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flamingdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 02:17 PM
Response to Reply #11
34. Remember the movie "The Blob"? It was a premonition (shudder) nt
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:09 PM
Response to Reply #4
14. Good point, Warren DeMontague. Does anyone know if
Edited on Tue May-17-11 12:09 PM by jtrockville
the containment vessle at #1 is cracked? Can it even hold water?
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:37 PM
Response to Reply #14
23. I think the water's not staying in the core containment. The larger concrete structure with the
suppression torus underneath, I think it's still unknown.

They didn't even know they'd had this level of meltdown situation until they got someone into the #1 bldg, AFAIK. From what I understand, they still don't know exactly where the core ended up, but they don't think all of it is in the metal inner containment structure anymore.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/13/fukushima-reactor-meltdown-flooding-warning
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:58 PM
Response to Reply #23
31. Thanks for the link. Very informative.
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Odin2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:27 PM
Response to Reply #4
19. It certainly hasn't gone through the earth and come out the other end.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:33 PM
Response to Reply #19
21. Like I said. The name to the contrary, no one has EVER suggested that's what it would do.
Did you ever see the movie "The China Syndrome"? In the scene where they explain the term, they specifically say that's not what would happen. The idea is that it could melt down until it hits groundwater.
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Odin2005 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:34 PM
Response to Reply #21
22. Doh, my bad.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:38 PM
Response to Reply #22
24. No worries. When this happened, I netflix'ed that movie and watched it again.
It had probably been 30 years since I saw it, and I didn't remember much.
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Chris_Texas Donating Member (707 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 10:22 PM
Response to Reply #2
41. Thank you.
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sufrommich Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
3. That is a pretty good guess. nt
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Goblinmonger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:01 PM
Response to Original message
5. He hadn't heard a hysterical theory nor the crappy movie made about it?
Shocking.

Ask him if he knows that Soylent Green is people.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #5
10. Given that Fukushima is turning out to be a clusterfuck of enormous proportions
Edited on Tue May-17-11 12:06 PM by Warren DeMontague
I think it's pretty funny that anyone is still bleating about 'hysterical' anti-nuclear stuff. Why don't you ask when the people in the evacuation zone are going to get to go home?
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Goblinmonger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. I'm not arguing that this isn't a clusterfuck
and that there aren't going to be SERIOUS ramifications to this. But the whole "melt through the earth and come out the other side" business is pretty silly.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:07 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Even IN the movie "the China Syndrome" they explained that's not what it means.
The idea is that it could melt down until it hits something like groundwater. No one ever suggested it would REALLY melt through 'to China'.
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Bluenorthwest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:30 PM
Response to Reply #5
20. The film is a good film. Nominated for Best Picture and Palm d'Or
Jack Lemon won at Cannes he and Fonda both nominated for Oscars, they both won BAFTAS, Screenplay won the WGA award and was nominated for the others. So the industry that judges films as films does not agree with the 'crappy movie' bit.
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Goblinmonger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:40 PM
Response to Reply #20
26. And Forrest Gump beat Shawshank and Pulp Fiction for Best Picture. n/t
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:41 PM
Response to Reply #26
27. Which proves that my pants are like a box of chocolates
Oh, sorry, that's "Foreskin Gump"
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
7. I suppose for them it would be Brazil Syndrome
:P
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:39 PM
Response to Reply #7
25. AKA "Brazilian Blowout"?
:spank:
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:09 PM
Response to Original message
15. I suppose he would have known the answer
if you had shown him the classic movie, too, at some point in his life ;)

However, I do understand that most folks under age-30 either have not seen most of the movies I watched on afternoon TV growing up (mostly black & white stuff, now seen on TCM), or they actively avoid anything not color, and not with special effects older than year-2000 (even that's pushing it for some of them...)
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:13 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. I've never even seen it myself. We just made plans to watch it together.
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kentauros Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:20 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. I thought it was a good movie, suspenseful.
And Jack Lemon was great at everything he did :D
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Taverner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:22 PM
Response to Original message
18. What's the China Syndrome? A bad name for a real problem
No it won't bore a hole all the way to China

But it will hit the water table, go 'kabloey!' and release toxic radiation into the atmosphere while simultaneously poisoning the water table for miles.

Ah, but that's nothing to worry about. We need more Nukes to stop global warming, don'tchya know!

Yay Blue Dog Logic!
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barbtries Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:43 PM
Response to Original message
28. lol
my son turns 19 today; i think i'll bring it up over dinner.
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 02:07 PM
Response to Reply #28
33. Happy Birthday to him. Let us know what he says.
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barbtries Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 07:20 PM
Response to Reply #33
37. i asked the question
he said no, and so did his 27-year-old brother. but it opened up a conversation and we talked about Japan for a while so it's all good. i also told them about the movie and how good it is.
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 07:41 PM
Response to Reply #37
38. Interesting. Thanks.
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Matariki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:53 PM
Response to Original message
29. Why are you sighing?
Because your son never heard of a term from your own childhood?
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 01:02 PM
Response to Reply #29
32. He knows plenty of stuff from my generation.
And plenty of stuff from prior generations too.

"Duck and Cover", for example.
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Matariki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 02:55 PM
Response to Reply #32
36. Oh man - "duck and cover"
I remember THAT! That was horrid, wasn't it? I remember having to do that in kindergarten. Talk about some creepy propaganda and pysops.
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 07:43 PM
Response to Reply #36
39. Horrid indeed. Not sure where he stumbled across that.
Thinking back... most of the schools I went to had fallout shelters. Haven't seen one of those in decades. I wonder if they're still around.
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Ian David Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 12:54 PM
Response to Original message
30. China Syndrome is on Encore right now. n/t
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plcdude Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 02:43 PM
Response to Original message
35. Here's a little
fun thing speaking of the China Syndrome http://www.freemaptools.com/tunnel-to-other-side-of-the-earth.htm
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jtrockville Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-17-11 07:47 PM
Response to Reply #35
40. Cool tool. I like it.
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Warren DeMontague Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-18-11 12:00 AM
Response to Reply #35
42. Neat.
'Course, if you're in the continental US, your answer is pretty much "The Indian Ocean"
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