WhiskeySix

Reactors are filled w/ water for this reason, right?

__________________




PoE2 Version 2.5 Overview | Get started with PoE2 (for free!)

leejo

I thought reactors are filled with water because they typically use steam turbines to generate electricity.

WhiskeySix

yeah that too... but i thought there were two water systems.. the cooling/generation one and then the containment one...

the cooling/generation water goes throught he pipes... the containment water just sits around everything:

__________________




PoE2 Version 2.5 Overview | Get started with PoE2 (for free!)

DudeMan

well im a scuba diver so ill survive about 3 hours more than you guys.... ha ha...

__________________


The Queen
"Those who perpetrate these brutal acts against innocent people should know that they will not change our way of life,"
Atrocities such as these simply reinforce our sense of community

TheFeniX
"Guns don't kill people: effeminate men in green tunics do"

CingularDuality

All I know is that my underground bunker is going to have water-filled walls...

Oh, and was there supposed to be a link in the original post?

__________________

Become a supporting member!

Buy a Tactical Duck!
Take the world's smallest political quiz! "I was touched by His Noodly Appendage."
TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

El_Gringo_Grande

The Chernobyl (sp?) reactor was a liquid graphite reactor. That is one of the reasons it went blewy. The graphite had a positive alpha T which basically means it that as temp goes up the power goes up. Not a good thing because it causes a runaway situation.

One reason some reactor designs use water is because it has a negative alpha T. So it the temp goes up power goes down. This tends to make the reactor safer because if the circulation pumps die the reactor will tend to loose power and thus not so likely a big boom.

Graphite is used in some designs because you can run at higher temps and thus get more power.

But water is "good enough" and is plentiful and in it's pure for is rather netrual. There are other designs. Liquid sodium is one but the obvious problem is corrsion of the parts.

Nuclear reactors do , generally, drive steam engines. But there is almost always a heat transfer unit that takes the energy from the water pumped through the reactor core and creates steam to drive the turbines. You do not want steam produced directly from the reactor itself. Steam cannot really absorb any heat so the core would tend to overheat and wouldn't be very efficient.

Oh and cing, I could't find a meaningful link. Only one to the show blurb.

__________________
I’m not racists, I have republican friends. Radio show host.
- "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity". -Jacob Burkhardt
- "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Emerson
- "People should not be afraid of it's government, government should be afraid of it's People." - Line from V for Vendetta
- If software were as unreliable as economic theory, there wouldn't be a plane made of anything other than paper that could get off the ground. Jim Fawcette

ChIck3nL3gz

I was going to mention that. Yes, 6' of water will protect you from radiation. What it won't protect you from is being vaporized or boiled to death from the secondary blast from a nuclear explosion.

__________________

[volun][drill]
I'm cannon fodder.
Irreg's Wiki
Rules and SOPs

El_Gringo_Grande

There are so many different designs. That looks to be a low power unit probably used for research. Some use little balls of nuclear material for safety. Some are just blobs of, I think, a cesium isotope to power remote monitoring stations. Russia used alot of them and that is a major source of material for dirty bombs.

__________________
I’m not racists, I have republican friends. Radio show host.
- "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity". -Jacob Burkhardt
- "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Emerson
- "People should not be afraid of it's government, government should be afraid of it's People." - Line from V for Vendetta
- If software were as unreliable as economic theory, there wouldn't be a plane made of anything other than paper that could get off the ground. Jim Fawcette

CingularDuality

Yeah, but as awesome as nuke blasts are, they're not as omnipotent as most people think... Populated areas are screwed, but protection from radiation is very important for survival. IF you're interested in surviving...

__________________

Become a supporting member!

Buy a Tactical Duck!
Take the world's smallest political quiz! "I was touched by His Noodly Appendage."
TacticalGamer TX LAN/BBQ Veteran:

ScratchMonkey

So if you design a spaceship with 6 feet of water all the way around, can you get to Mars in it without all your brain cells being destroyed by solar radiation, cosmic rays, and flares?

__________________

El_Gringo_Grande

Yea, the blast would kill millions in the, rather large, areas it directly affects. With a bit a preperation most of humanity could survive. Even those only a few dozen miles away could live past the initial blast.

But the fallout is nasty and very long lasting. It gets into everything. Cherynobyl was mild compared to a weapon but it has caused long term effects in a rather large area.

__________________
I’m not racists, I have republican friends. Radio show host.
- "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity". -Jacob Burkhardt
- "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Emerson
- "People should not be afraid of it's government, government should be afraid of it's People." - Line from V for Vendetta
- If software were as unreliable as economic theory, there wouldn't be a plane made of anything other than paper that could get off the ground. Jim Fawcette

TychoCelchuuu

Well, a nuke will certainly blast the area it hits, but it's not like everyone is dead no matter what. Plenty of people survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even to a degree that their clothes were blown completely off their bodies, although they survived the blast. So if you wanted to chill underwater, there's a great chance that if you're far enough away you can survive both the blast and the radiation.

Until the food runs out.

__________________
|TG-Irr|TychoCelchuuu

El_Gringo_Grande

The food and the water.

And those where single, rather small, blasts. A few dozen explosions of the current nuclear weapons?

You are right, of course. Some did survive for many years afterward. But survival would be dependent on many factors.

That whacky radiation and the human body interaction isn't completly understood.

But I would rather not bet on it with my families or my own individual health.

__________________
I’m not racists, I have republican friends. Radio show host.
- "The essence of tyranny is the denial of complexity". -Jacob Burkhardt
- "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Emerson
- "People should not be afraid of it's government, government should be afraid of it's People." - Line from V for Vendetta
- If software were as unreliable as economic theory, there wouldn't be a plane made of anything other than paper that could get off the ground. Jim Fawcette

ScratchMonkey

Biggest nuke ever detonated: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba

__________________

ScratchMonkey

Wildlife defies Chernobyl radiation
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4923342.stm

Slashdot commentary
http://science.slashdot.org/article..../04/20/2318242

__________________