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So instead of melting down by accident it melts down deliberately, controlled by a fan? Somehow I'm not as reassured as I might be.
by TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
So instead of melting down by accident it melts down deliberately, controlled by a fan?
Somehow I'm not as reassured as I might be.
- rland 6y agoWell, no. A meltdown is when the stuff escapes containment and then continues undergoing fission, heating up and melting out of containment and into groundwater/the environment. The drain tanks are shaped specifically so if the (liquid) fuel flows in, it will stop reacting. And presumably the whole apparatus (drain tanks included) is inside of a biological shield. So a "meltdown" here just means a big hunk of solid nuclear salt inside the bio-shield. I think the idea being that you could just bury the whole thing in case of failure.
- jabl 6y agoIIRC draining the fuel salt into the drain tanks was standard operating procedure for one of the early MSR experimental reactors. Next morning when they came in to continue experiments, started the (electrical?) heaters to liquify the salt and pump it back into the reactor core. Wouldn't surprise me if the modern designs are similar.
- jbverschoor 6y agoAlso, there is no pressure build up, which is what caused the big explosion in Fukushima. All the coolant starts boiling, turning into gas, and well the rest was in the news
- bbojan 6y agoJust for clarification, the big explosion at Fukushima was a hydrogen explosion. At high temperatures, fuel cladding breaks water into hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen collected at the highest point in the structure and later exploded.
- mohaine 6y agoThis would not be melting down. Melting down is melting out of the containment device, which this is not doing. True it is melting INTO a secondary containment device but unless it continues to melt through that it would not be a 'melt down'