Hypothesis--hydrogen shockwave created an actual nuclear explosion, a quick criticality. Evidence in proportions of radioactive element over there would prove or disprove this theory, although no real data is being released.
Gundersen Postulates Unit 3 Explosion May Have Been Prompt Criticality in Fuel Pool from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.
IMO more likely it caused a near-criticality (which could have released a lot of heat, which could have flashed water to steam, adding to the explosion), but not an actual criticality. Kinda hard to do that in a reactor, actually takes quite a bit of engineering to get it to happen.
ReplyDeleteThat nasty shit got ejected into the surrounding area wouldn't surprise me a bit though...
How would define near criticality to criticality?
ReplyDeleteI haven't studied it enough to know. I know a bomb has to be very exactly imploded to "go off", but with hundreds of thousands of pounds of uranium/plutonium right there, maybe enough "background neutrons" were around to allow a low scale criticality. Strictly talking here, not researching.