Re:First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima ...
by petschge on Friday February 15, 2019 @04:36PM
(#19174958)
Part of that problem is that water is actually a decent moderator and neutron reflector, so it helps a lot in keeping a chain reaction with lots of energy output going. Some of the energy also goes into splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen can then collect in some corner of the building until it reaches an concentration where it explodes rather easily. The explosion can then damage the building, ruining containment and scatter radioactive material around. Moral of the story? Keep your box of boronic sand nice and dry.
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Re:First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima ...
by logifail on Saturday February 16, 2019 @04:29AM
(#19177891)
> Moral of the story? Keep your box of boronic sand nice and dry.
See also:
"For every three units of energy produced by the reactor core of a U.S. nuclear power plants, two units are discharged to the environment as waste heat. Nuclear plants are built on the shores of lakes, rivers, and oceans because these bodies provide the large quantities of cooling water needed to handle the waste heat discharge."[0]
[0] https://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_power/nuclear_power_technolog...
Re:First contact made with melted nuclear fuel at Fukushima ...
by londons_explore on Monday February 18, 2019 @04:48AM
(#19189604)
Pretty much every energy source has a lot of waste heat produced.
Solar panels get hot, gas turbines have hot exhausts, coal plants have cooling towers etc.
They all approximate a heat engine, and they must theoretically give off heat to the cold reservoir