DOSSIER SPÉCIAL : "Tsunami, un an après2 - À quand le prochain séisme ? Tepco, une entreprise trop sûre d'elle-même. If there's a meltdown, then what? By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News If the meltdown at Japan's stricken nuclear plant goes total, experts don't expect to see a "China syndrome" scenario or a Chernobyl-style conflagration. But the situation would be worse than it is now — which is why Japanese authorities have been working so hard to stabilize the situation at the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex. Emergency operations were briefly suspended on Wednesday, Japan time, due to a spike in radiation levels. Just how much worse could things get? That's a matter of debate.
Princeton nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel suggests that we're already seeing the major effects of the meltdown, in the form of periodic releases of radioactivity from the reactors as well as from a fire-damaged storage facility for nuclear fuel rods. "In a sense, the worst has happened already, with the fuel releasing much of its volatile radionuclides," von Hippel said today during an msnbc.com chat about the nuclear crisis. More on Japan's crisis: Une : "Au Japon, la crise nucléaire reste aigue.