Nuclear chain reaction between being slightly subcritical and slightly delayed-supercritical, but must always remain below prompt-critical. It is impossible for a nuclear power plant to undergo a nuclear chain reaction that results in an explosion of power comparable with a nuclear weapon, but even low-powered explosions due to uncontrolled chain reactions, that would be considered "fizzles" in a bomb, may still cause considerable damage and meltdown in a reactor. For example, the Chernobyl disaster involved a runaway chain reaction but the result was a low-powered steam explosion from the relatively small release of heat, as compared with a bomb. However, the reactor complex
Timeline of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster spent nuclear fuel in the storage pool inside the reactor of unit 3. Water is sprayed into the reactor for a total of 7 hours during the day. TEPCO reports that the water was effective in lowering the temperature around the spent fuel rods to below 100 °C. External power is reconnected to unit 2, but work continues to make the equipment operational. Repaired diesel generators at unit 6 provide power to restart the cooling on units 5 and 6, both of which are returned to cold shutdown and their fuel cooling ponds returned to normal operating temperatures. TEPCO announces