Science behind the nuclear crisis in Japan

The unfortunate events at the nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan, has resulted in plenty of science talk in the media.

Some of it has been well explained... Some of it has not.

At periodicvideos and Sixty Symbols we've posted some videos to help clarify a few points.

Most recent is this video about millisieverts - a unit I'd never even heard of!



We also posted some extra footage from this video at Test Tube.

And as I've previously blogged, here's The Professor on how reactors work and some of the things that can go wrong.

He also discusses some of the chemistry going on, such as why people take iodine and why there have been hydrogen explosions.