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Rive said:ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/fp5-euratom/docs/09-sara.pdf
So they think it's likely happens in some circumstances.
But Tsutsuji is right about the Xenon levels, so in this particular case it's not likely happened.
Thank you, Rive, for a useful link.
This is an informative study, but dealing with a much lesser accident than Fukushima.
They posit a situation after an accident where the control rods have melted but the fuel is largely intact, and resume cooling water injections with unborated water. Obviously the fuel geometries maximize the neutron capture once the water moderates the neutrons emitted.
Here we have damaged/destroyed fuel, maybe in heaps, maybe melted into corium, under a shower of borated water, so we have fast neutrons, with no moderator around and bad geometries.
How is recriticality possible in those conditions?