China syndrome

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun idiomatic, nuclear physics, uncountable A hypothetical kind of catastrophic failure in which a nuclear reactor melts through the floor of its containment system and penetrates the earth's surface, continuing downward as if (from a Western Hemispheric point of view) traveling through the planet toward China.
• noun idiomatic, countable, nuclear physics One instance of such a nuclear mishap.
• noun idiomatic, countable A behavior, policy, or situation characteristic of or involving China; an actual or potential catastrophe, especially one involving China.
• noun medicine A rare disease, first characterized in the early 1990s, which resembles poliomyelitis but which has somewhat different characteristics and occurs in persons vaccinated for poliomyelitis.