3 ms·
IIRC from the movie, it wasn't that it would burrow through to China, but that it would burrow to groundwater and then become a rocket propelled by steam.
by superuser2 11y ago
IIRC from the movie, it wasn't that it would burrow through to China, but that it would burrow to groundwater and then become a rocket propelled by steam.
- tajen 11y agoNuclear fusion (the next gen of energy - as opposed to the current, radioactive fission) requires temperatures of 1m degrees. In case of meltdown, would the sand be enough, or would we have something closer to a China Syndrome?
- wycx 11y agoI doubt you will melt very far. For the same reason it is difficult to sustain super-liquidus magmas on earth-you just melt more material until your composition and temperature converge. Even a fusion reactor has small thermal mass relative to the rest of the earth.
- Merad 11y agoFission and fusion are fundamentally different in the way they work. If a fission reaction goes out of control, it can continue releasing enormous amounts of energy for days or even weeks, because it's based around releasing radioactive energy stored in the nuclear fuel. Fusion OTOH is fusing together atoms of fuel that are relatively benign on their own - fusion is only possible at the high temperatures inside the reactor. I'm no expert on the physics, but AFAIK as soon as a fusion reactor is breached the conditions needed to sustain the reaction will quickly disappear and the reaction will almost immediately stop.
- ChuckMcM 11y agoNo. If a fusion reactor fails, the fusion plasma would dissipate in less than a microsecond. There are no secondary outputs so the plant would simple "turn off". Unlike a fission reaction which can occur spontaneously on its own[1] the amount of energy to keep a fusion reaction going is tremendous, without that energy it stops. [1] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-nuclear-reactor/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-nuclear-re...