SSS 2011-03-14

（单词翻译）

This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Steve Mirsky. This will just take a minute.

"The type of accident that is occurring in Japan is known as the station blackout: loss of off-site AC power—power lines are down—and then a subsequent failure of emergency power on-site, the diesel¹ generators². The station blackout has been one of the great concerns for decades."

Physicist³ Ken⁴ Bergeron, speaking on March 12 during a press briefing. He worked on nuclear reactor⁵ accident analysis at Sandia National Laboratories.

"The probability is hard to calculate primarily because of the possibility of what are called common-cause accidents, where the loss of off-site power and of on-site power are caused by the same thing. In this case the earthquake and tsunami⁶. We're hoping that all of the barriers to release of radioactivity will not fail. So far the first barrier, which is the fuel cladding, has apparently⁷ failed, because they are detecting cesium. We now have to hope that the subsequent layers, including primarily the containment⁸ building, will succeed in preventing release of major amounts of radioactivity."

Thanks for the minute. For Scientific American's 60-Second Science, I'm Steve Mirsky.

For more from Bergeron, see my article on the SciAm Web site "Nuclear Experts Explain Worst-Case Scenario at Fukushima Power Plant"