This Fuel Rod Coating Could Prevent the Next Fukushima

The 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami, has created an ongoing environmental and public health crisis . Nuclear experts say that the greatest radiation-releasing damage to the plant may have been caused by the explosion of built-up hydrogen as the plant overheated. Now, MIT researchers have developed a new coating for nuclear fuel rods they say prevents precisely that explosive situation.