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Nuclear power gets a bad rap. Instead of abandoning the technology we should be focusing on how to safely contain a meltdown. I mean if we use boron control rod
by blackflame7000 8y ago
Nuclear power gets a bad rap. Instead of abandoning the technology we should be focusing on how to safely contain a meltdown. I mean if we use boron control rods to absorb the neutrons, then why not encase the whole thing in a boron tomb that vacuum seals when radiation is detected?
- javagram 8y agomodern reactors have core catching devices that are supposed to catch a meltdown and prevent it from going into the ground https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_catcher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_catcher of course these have never been tried in an accident because both Chernobyl and Fukushima are very old reactors. On the other hand before Fukushima I used to see people say that the problem with Chernobyl is there was no containment vessel as there is in western reactors, then in Fukushima the containment vessel did melt through. So who knows how well the core catcher would work in practice.
- pfdietz 8y agoThe cores at Fukushima didn't "go into the ground" either. That doesn't prevent water in the core carrying radioactive material all over the place, once things are compromised.
- blackflame7000 8y agoTrue, but radioactive water is much easier to deal with than radioactive air because the hydrogen will capture the neutrons converting to Deuterium which is relatively safe and isotopes of oxygen are relatively shortlived. So as long as you can filter the heavy metals, it's in theory, less of a mess.