[dreadgeek]

1) Will the reactors explode like a nuclear bomb?

No. That can't happen. The physics of a nuclear bomb being detonated are different than the physics of a nuclear power plant. There are no conditions that could ever occur in the core of a reactor that would be sufficient for the large, immediate, release of ALL of the energy. A nuclear bomb is releasing all of the energy in the fissile material in a matter of a second. A nuclear power plant does not have the conditions necessary for that kind of fast reaction.

2) Will radiation kill me?

High enough doses of radiation will kill you. That said, you are exposed to radiation every day. The Sun is bombarding you with radiation, the ground is bombarding you with radiation. The thing is we evolved on this planet so our bodies are capable of, more or less, are capable of dealing with the daily exposures. The problem is when you get high doses of radiation. The kind of radiation that concerns us is ionizing radiation. The danger of this form of radiation is that it is high energy and thus enough to break chemical bonds. This includes the chemical bonds in our DNA which can cause replication errors leading to cancer.

3) Will the reactors experience a full meltdown?

No one knows. This is terra incognito however, the thing that is helping me sleep at night is that it is clear the the plant operators are trying to 'kill' the reactor instead of bring it down gracefully so it can be started up later. By 'kill' I mean that they are pumping sea water into it and, of course, salt is a corrosive. They are also injecting boric acid into the reactor. The key here is not the acid but the boron. That element absorbs neutrons without fissioning so it will slow down the reaction rate in the core. I would be FAR more concerned if they were trying to save the reactors.

That's it for now. I will answer questions as asked to the best of my ability. I'll update this thread as I get more information and process it.

Cheers
Aj