The latest nuclear reactor designs could help avoid the overheating and explosions that have occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan following the powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck on Friday. Newer reactor designs propose the use of passive cooling systems that would not fail after a power outage, as happened in Japan, as well as other novel approaches to managing reactor heat.

As of Monday, power plant operators in Japan continued to struggle to cool reactors at the Daiichi plant. Two explosions had occurred in parts of the plant but the reactor core and primary containment structures were apparently not damaged. (There have been reports of an third "explosive sound.") So far relatively little radiation has been released (although there have been transient, and dangerous, spikes of radiation). Some experts say that a complete meltdown, in which large amounts of radioactive material would be released into the environment, is unlikely, and that within a few days, the reactor core will have cooled to the point that it will be easier to manage.

The Daiichi power plant shut down automatically after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit (recently updated from 8.9), but the cores of its four [there are actually six in total, but three had been shut down] reactors still require cooling to prevent a meltdown. The cooling is normally provided by water that is pumped into the core using electricity. The earthquake cut off electricity needed to drive water pumps, and then backup diesel generators failed, likely as the result of the tsunami triggered by the earthquake. Although details are difficult to confirm, it appears that another cooling system that uses batteries and steam-driven pumps also failed, and a heat exchange system that removes heat from the water coolant around the reactor seemed to be damaged, says Andrew Kadak, a research affiliate at MIT.

Plant operators used firehoses to pump seawater into the Daiichi reactor to cool it down , says Michael Podowski, a visiting professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, but without the cooling system in place, there is no way to remove heat from that water via the heat exchanger. As a result, the water heats until it turns to steam, which causes pressure to build up within the containment building.