China syndrome

China syndrome refers to a hypothetical nuclear reactor meltdown so severe that the molten core burns through the containment vessel and into the earth—jokingly "toward China" from the United States.

The term gained currency from the 1979 film *The China Syndrome*, released days before the Three Mile Island accident.

It now broadly describes any catastrophic industrial failure or worst-case scenario: If we don't fix this code, we're looking at a China syndrome.