CHINA SYNDROME

noun (Science and Technology) A hypothetical sequence of events following the meltdown of a nuclear reactor, in which so much heat is generated that the core melts through its containment structure and deep down into the earth. Etymology: Formed by compounding: the idea is that the syndrome ultimately results in the meltdown's reaching China (from the US) by melting through the core of the earth. History and Usage: The China syndrome was always a fictional concept. It began as a piece of the folklore of nuclear physics but was widely popularized by the film The China Syndrome (produced in the US in 1979), which dealt with a fictional case of the official cover-up of an operational flaw in a nuclear reactor. Partly as a result of this film and partly because of the near meltdown which occurred at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in 1986, the idea of the China syndrome came to symbolize people's fears about the increasing use of nuclear power, even though the actual sequence of events in the fictional China syndrome was obviously far-fetched. The phrase had become sufficiently well known by the late eighties to be applied punningly by journalists in a number of other contexts, notably in relation to mass pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing in 1989 and their subsequent violent suppression by the Chinese government. Mr. Velikhov's announcement gave no clear indication just how close the Chernobyl disaster came to creating the so-called 'China Syndrome'. The Times 12 May 1986, p. 1 For at least a decade, government and business leaders around the world have based their Asian thinking on the belief that China was an economically developing, politically stable giant. Now all that has been stood on its head. There is a new China syndrome. Business Week 26 June 1989, p. 76