An American passing through Switzerland

The American physicist, Miro Todorovic, answers several questions in the light of the recent reactor accident at Chernobyl. He states that a similar accident could not occur in the West for two fundamental reasons: first, regarding a loss-of-coolant accident, at Chernobyl a reheating suddenly increases the reactivity, in Western light water reactors all abnormal temperature rises automatically cause the reactivity to decrease; secondly, reactors of the Chernobyl-type do not have a containment shell to prevent the release of radioactivity to the environment. (G.T.H.)