4 ms·
Arguably, the complexity of getting the blob of fissile material should count as complexity. I'd argue that the simplest reactor therefore is the kind you can m
by acidburnNSA 2y ago
Arguably, the complexity of getting the blob of fissile material should count as complexity. I'd argue that the simplest reactor therefore is the kind you can make with natural material, so a beryllium, heavy water, or graphite moderated natural uranium reactor like CP-1. Even then there was much complexity in getting pure enough graphite.
- grecy 2y agoThe article even mentions there were naturally occurring nuclear reactors on earth a while ago. So it's possible to for a blob of fissile material to just form naturally.
- acidburnNSA 2y agoWell, that was 2 billion years ago. Since U-235 has a shorter half-life than U-238, the natural uranium enrichment was far higher back then. And indeed that was a water-moderated reactor. [1] Some people have postulated that the moon itself was formed in a nuclear fission excursion [2], and/or that there is or was a nuclear reactor in the center of Earth [3]. These are both not commonly believed. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_nuclear_fission_reacto... [2] https://phys.org/news/2010-01-moon-nuclear-explosion.html https://phys.org/news/2010-01-moon-nuclear-explosion.html [3] https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.5934 https://arxiv.org/abs/1308.5934