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When the earthquake happened, the nuclear power plants automatically shut down. However, even after the fission reaction is stopped, the fuel rods are still very hot, and must be kept cooled. The cooling system was working correctly until the tsunami hit, which destroyed the connections to the power grid, as well as the back up diesel generators. This caused the cooling systems to go to the emergency steam turbine mode, which was not adequate to keep the fuel rods cool for very long.

As the fuel rods got hotter, the water boiled off, which allowed the rods to get even hotter, which began generating hydrogen gas. This gas is explosive, and was detonated by something, resulting in the explosions which further damaged the reactors. Also, used fuel rods are stored on site in pools above the reactor vessels, which require cooling as well. These used fuel rods boiled off their cooling water, and began to overheat. The cooling systems had to be supplemented with some other form of cooling, to keep the fuel in the reactor vessels and in the spent fuel pools from over heating. The method used was to pump as much water in to the reactors and the pools as possible, which resulted in very radioactive water accumulating around the reactors. This highly radioactive water began leaking into the ocean, which caused contamination.

Only one nuclear power plant has suffered catastrophic failures, and they are the result of the tsunami, not of design deficiencies.

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