Japan's Nuclear Disaster Explained

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In which Hank explains nuclear power and the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan.

In short, fission products continually decaying in both active and spent fuel rods create enough heat to melt themselves. The coolant systems that would prevent this from happening were disabled by the tsunami. Cracks in the fuel rods created an environment allowing hydrogen to form, which concentrated and then exploded several times destroying both the primary and secondary containment structures at at least one reactor.

The result is that the reactor needs to remain cooled or else radiation from the meltdown will be released to the environment in significant quantities. The people working to keep the reactor from overheating are risking their lives to do so, and we all hope they will be able to stabilize the reactor without harm.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• japan
• tsunami
• earthquake
• fukushima
• daiichi
• nuclear
• power
• reactor
• plant
• uranium
• meltdown
• fuel
• rods
• coolant

[sbowesuk]

If this guy taught any subject at school, I'm sure his students' grades would go through the roof!

10/10 for explaining a very complictated subject in such a simple and clear manner! :)

[RJmakesvids]

@cortexedge YOU ARE A DECEPTICON!

[swefr235]

@2142Fritz I agree that nuclear fission by uranium causes more problems than it solves, but don't rule out all of nuclear power. I would like to see all uranium plants closed and replaced by thorium based power plants. Thorium fission is probably what will save western society from peak crude oil prices destroying our way of life. But best of all you can't have a meltdown with thorium plants and the radioactive decay process takes a short amount of time for spent thorium fuel rods.

[2142Fritz]

im becoming more and more wary of nuclear power Chernobyl , three mile island , Japan now. i mean yes there are some very large benifits but do they out weight the costs if something goes wrong ? im not trying to be rash or mean about this like this man i see both sides of the argument it just seems like there is this looming cloud of doom.i live somewhat close to a nuclear power plant and i know if something happens and the winds is blowing the right way im a goner

[IsAwkward]

In my school sometimes they show these videos, like the one about the French revolution we watch in world history before :D

[narusbabygurl]

you mentioned Haiti have you read Mountains Beyond Mountains?

[ScienceofWinning]

c is traditionally lower case when referring to the speed of light in physics.

[hatorigirl1202]

@sbowesuk Are you aware of his other channels? Scishow is great for the latest in scientific news, and crashcourse he does with his brother, like this channel where he teaches biology and his brother teaches world history. I find his crashcourse videos are a little too fast paced, but scishow is great.

[MrProblemXD]

Wow. I actually learned something. He should be my school science teacher.

[Tuttomenui]

Google 'Molten Salt Thorium Reactors', it might convince you that there is in fact a better way to get energy from nuclear materials. Also these can not melt down and they are proliferation proof.

[fanfictionaddict13]

Hank, only you can make the basics of nuclear energy so interesting. Thanks for being awesome.

[SuperBealor]

whats with the subtitles?