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Post by Enderminion on Mar 2, 2017 16:57:14 GMT
but they're so bad compared to molten salt reactors They are not reactors, don't dignify them as such. They are bottled nuclear accidents waiting to happen. you also can't turn them off, without the coolant freezing
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Post by jonen on Mar 2, 2017 17:08:43 GMT
They are not reactors, don't dignify them as such. They are bottled nuclear accidents waiting to happen. you also can't turn them off, without the coolant freezing And I'm pretty sure they all require active coolant flow, in which case once their performance degrades so much they can no longer supply their pumps with enough power to keep a steady flow, the coolant will start freezing unevenly and clog, meaning you'll have to kill the reactor permanently by shuttering the reaction with your control elements letting all the coolant freeze (and most likely locking your control elements in place, since there is no safe restart), or accept having a runaway nuclear reaction and meltdown because your coolant starts boiling away around the heat elements because it is no longer flowing. Not bottled nuclear accidents waiting to happen - nuclear meltdown grenades in a can with a time fuze and a pulled pin. And given minmaxing, I'm not sure all designs are issued with a pin with which to safe it before it goes off.
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Post by Enderminion on Mar 2, 2017 17:13:03 GMT
you also can't turn them off, without the coolant freezing And I'm pretty sure they all require active coolant flow, in which case once their performance degrades so much they can no longer supply their pumps with enough power to keep a steady flow, the coolant will start freezing unevenly and clog, meaning you'll have to kill the reactor permanently by shuttering the reaction with your control elements letting all the coolant freeze (and most likely locking your control elements in place, since there is no safe restart), or accept having a runaway nuclear reaction and meltdown because your coolant starts boiling away around the heat elements because it is no longer flowing. Not bottled nuclear accidents waiting to happen - nuclear meltdown grenades in a can with a time fuze and a pulled pin. And given minmaxing, I'm not sure all designs are issued with a pin with which to safe it before it goes off. It gets better, the Soviet Alfa class attack subs had lead bismuth cooled nuclear reactors, one froze at sea and four were decommissioned because the reactors failed.
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Post by thorneel on Mar 2, 2017 19:56:58 GMT
but they're so bad compared to molten salt reactors They are not reactors, don't dignify them as such. They are bottled nuclear accidents waiting to happen. Could you detail please? For what I heard at least about recent models, they were especially safe, as any leak would solidify under ambient conditions, and any excess temperature in the core would expand and thus decrease the reaction. What exactly are the big risks in those?
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Post by jonen on Mar 2, 2017 22:39:42 GMT
They are not reactors, don't dignify them as such. They are bottled nuclear accidents waiting to happen. Could you detail please? For what I heard at least about recent models, they were especially safe, as any leak would solidify under ambient conditions, and any excess temperature in the core would expand and thus decrease the reaction. What exactly are the big risks in those? Hm, okay, so maybe only accidents (by which I mean that any incident where the nuclear reactor is outside normal operational parameters is, per definition, an accident).
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Post by Enderminion on Mar 3, 2017 1:25:55 GMT
A soviet sub with a lead-bismuth reactor had its coolant freeze at sea. (Alfa class)
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