Environment: The Great Nuclear Debate

The trouble is first recorded by sensitive, computerized instruments in the control room of the nuclear power plant. They warn that temperatures inside the reactor are rising fast toward a danger point — so fast that only one explanation is possible: somehow, the main pipes carrying water to the reactor core have broken or clogged. As white-coated technicians look on helplessly, the back-up water system also fails. Deprived of the coolant that controls its temperature, the reactor begins melting in its own heat. Then the machine and its fuel collapse into a...