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The terrorism threat has always been more media then reality with reactors though. The idea of these small reactors is that they're not big complicated structur
by XorNot 5y ago
The terrorism threat has always been more media then reality with reactors though. The idea of these small reactors is that they're not big complicated structures, so there protection needs are different - i.e. the reactor body can be built into the ground and concreted over until its time to decommission it.
Such a unit would be pretty close to impenetrable to any terrorist threat - there's no building to crash into, no structure or employees to attack. The literal attack surface is greatly reduced - and any operation to penetrate the unit would be large, highly visible, and take time.
- hkt 5y ago> the reactor body can be built into the ground and concreted over until its time to decommission it. This seems wild. Who is doing or proposing it?
- XorNot 5y agoWestinghouse are big into the concept and have been for a few decades - obviously anti-nuclear sentiment tends to hold it back, though the economics are tricky.
- Gupie 5y agoWhat is the risk of sabotage from someone working in and very knowledgeable about how the unit works?
- upsidesinclude 5y agoMinimal. You're talking about highly trained, licensed nuclear power engineers. That's a community in the US that can safely be estimated as 70% prior US Navy nuclear reactor techs and officers.
- bell-cot 5y agoConsidering how many thousands of minimally-protected water treatment plants there are, and how much publicity a serious sabotage job would get, and how extremely few reports there are of sabotage actually happening...
- XorNot 5y agoZero: small scale reactor designs like pebble bed reactors are designed as "set and forget" - they're intrinsically safe, and only need to be accessed when they need refueling. A model of deployment was that if you were setting up a town, you'd basically go dig a pit and lower one of these into it, pave over the top (or I suppose actually install some very heavy doors) and then build the town radially outwards from the reactor. The unit itself would be hermetically sealed - no employees, no systems to maintain. If it malfunctions or fails, then the idea is you drive out, pickup the container and drop a new one in.