I don't know why. Please help me.
Why did the reactors at the Fukushima plant overheat?
Because of Nuclear power generation?
http://www.google.com/search?q=+Why+did+the+reactors+at+the+Fukushima+plant+overheat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&client=firefox-a&rlz=1R1GGLL_en___US379
Read widely and take good notes.
This is information I found. Yet I don't understand.
Flooding the reactor sooner could have avoided the need to vent radioactive steam caused by overheating of fuel rods and an explosion caused when steam from the overheating water reacted with zirconium cladding that holds fuel pellets in the reactor vessel to produce hydrogen,
The reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan overheated due to a combination of factors, including an earthquake and a subsequent tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011. The earthquake cut off the external power supply to the plant, causing a loss of electricity required to run the cooling systems. The tsunami that followed further compounded the problem by flooding the plant and damaging its backup generators, which were intended to provide power in case of such emergencies.
To understand why the reactors overheated, it is important to grasp the basic principles of nuclear power generation. Nuclear reactors use controlled nuclear fission, the splitting of atomic nuclei, to generate heat. This heat is then used to produce steam, which drives turbines for electricity generation. During this process, the nuclear fuel rods in the reactor generate a significant amount of heat, even after the fission reaction is stopped.
In normal operation, the reactor's cooling system removes this excess heat, maintaining the fuel rods at a safe temperature. However, when the external power supply and backup generators fail, as they did at Fukushima, the cooling systems stop functioning. Without proper cooling, the heat produced by the fuel rods causes the temperature in the reactors to rise uncontrollably, leading to a condition called a meltdown. This can result in the release of radiation and the potential for a catastrophic failure of the reactor containment structure.
In the case of Fukushima, the overheating of the reactors resulted in a partial meltdown, leading to the release of radioactive material into the environment. The subsequent response and cleanup efforts involved extensive measures to cool the reactors and prevent further releases of radiation.
It is worth noting that while this specific incident was a result of external factors, it highlighted the importance of safety protocols and adequate backup systems in nuclear power plants to protect against unforeseen events.