The China Syndrome (1979) (Special Edition)

Total fiction with an impossible story line

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Jun 1, 2001

This film tries to paint the picture that a nuclear meltdown would "burn" through the earth. In fact, all power plants in the U.S. have containment domes between 5 and 10 feet thick with 12" thick steel pressure vessels. Even assuming worst-case sc...enario, the fuel does not have enough energy to melt through both the pressure vessel and containment.Therefore, a "meltdown" (i.e. fuel melts through the vessel and containment and enters the ground) is impossible.If you want a "thriller" with a catchy storyline, then by all means, rent it - but understand that the events depicted in this film are impossible at any U.S. power plant. Therefore, when other reviews state that "...In reality, the fuel would instantly vaporize any water it comes into contact with spewing it all over the continent" they just show their ignornace of reality. Read more Less