Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval

Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by hinkley on Thursday September 03, 2020 @05:17PM (#24368992)

What's the radius around a reactor where a critical core can trigger fission in the next reactor over?

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Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by jabl on Thursday September 03, 2020 @05:22PM (#24369044)

You'd have to place both cores within the same reactor pressure vessel, which isn't possible.

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Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by hinkley on Friday September 04, 2020 @11:06AM (#24375586)

So as long as the reactor vessel is intact it absorbs 100% of the neutrons? Going out as well as coming in?

Because in a failure you’ll have only one pressure vessel between the two cores. If everything else goes right.

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Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by jabl on Friday September 04, 2020 @01:13PM (#24376843)

> So as long as the reactor vessel is intact it absorbs 100% of the neutrons? Going out as well as coming in?

Neutron diffusion is a statistical process, so yeah, a small amount of neutrons will escape through the reactor wall. But not enough that the neutron flux from one reactor would influence the next one in any measurable way.

> Because in a failure you’ll have only one pressure vessel between the two cores. If everything else goes right.

Yes, also in this case.

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Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by rmtech on Friday September 04, 2020 @06:13AM (#24373557)

In practice, 0.

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