3 ms·
> As the temperature rises, neutron absorption increases, reducing fission and thus temperature. Negative fuel temperature coefficient is not an unusual featur
by chickenbig 2y ago
> As the temperature rises, neutron absorption increases, reducing fission and thus temperature.
Negative fuel temperature coefficient is not an unusual feature.
The real question is whether the heat removal system of the reactor as a whole is sufficient to remove the decay heat to keep the fuel within the limits.
- Gibbon1 2y agoI remember talking to an engineer at the old GE nuclear research facility in San Jose. He said you can design reactors to be cooled by natural convection.
- pfdietz 2y agoIt just makes them larger. And it makes the building containing them larger. And this makes them more expensive. NuScale's reactor was originally motivated by the desire to make it safer by using natural convection. But it ends up requiring 1/3rd more labor hours to build a NPP using their reactors than it does to build a conventional large reactor power plant.
- chickenbig 2y ago> He said you can design reactors to be cooled by natural convection. That's the point of the Westinghouse AP1000; the containment (steel liner) and protection from the outside world (concrete wall) are separated, allowing the liner to cool by convection and water dripping from above. Admittedly you need to top up the water tank at the top, but that is less of a task than trying to push water into the containment.