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The article says the spent fuel assemblies need active cooling otherwise the water will evaporate. Really?! Even though it’s years since the reactors shut down?
by jl6 5y ago
The article says the spent fuel assemblies need active cooling otherwise the water will evaporate. Really?! Even though it’s years since the reactors shut down?
- wongarsu 5y agoThe fuel assemblies are radioactive, thus heat the water. Heated water evaporates. That's all the article claims, and it's obviously true. In fact, liquid water at any temperature evaporates. What the article doesn't mention is the timescale. Is the water heated to a significant degree? Does it evaporate notably faster than any other pool exposed to the atmosphere? The answer seems to be: not really enough to worry about.
- tenebrisalietum 5y agoThe shutdown procedure for a nuclear reactor can take decades.