Re:1959 Santa Susana meltdown
by acidburnNSA on Friday August 12, 2022 @10:25PM
(#32446377)
I hope we're measuring and disseminating dose rate and dose rate hazard information these days. I hate that I ctrl-f these kinds of articles for mSv (measure of radioactive dose) and never find it.
The reactor type they were testing there is actually super interesting. It was a liquid metal cooled reactor (LMR) with slow neutrons. We have made lots of fast-neutron LMRs, but only a tiny handful of slow-neutron LMRs. They're interesting because they get the neutronics efficiencies of slow neutrons (e.g. they can start up and operate with very low enriched uranium) while also getting the benefits of cooling with liquid metal (low-pressure passive safety, high temperature heat, low corrosion, single phase flow).
It's my favorite reactor type actually. The SRE in LA was the prototype for the Hallam reactor in Nebraska.
The reactor type they were testing there is actually super interesting. It was a liquid metal cooled reactor (LMR) with slow neutrons. We have made lots of fast-neutron LMRs, but only a tiny handful of slow-neutron LMRs. They're interesting because they get the neutronics efficiencies of slow neutrons (e.g. they can start up and operate with very low enriched uranium) while also getting the benefits of cooling with liquid metal (low-pressure passive safety, high temperature heat, low corrosion, single phase flow).
It's my favorite reactor type actually. The SRE in LA was the prototype for the Hallam reactor in Nebraska.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallam_Nuclear_Power_Facility