sgrannel wrote:
I have an interest in Chernobyl because it's a big part of why energy took the direction it took. There was an accident. As with many relatively new industries, things go wrong and you don't know where the problems are at first. Now it is well understood that reactors must be designed to have a negative void coefficient (Chernobyl) and a means of handling the decay heat at shutdown (Fukushima).
Nevertheless, that doesn't mean we should abandon the benefits of nuclear power, but rather, learn from the mistakes and don't repeat them. Passenger jets used to crash a lot more often than they do now, but we still use them and they have become a lot safer.
I don't think anyone ever thought that constructing a reactor in which the reaction rate
increases with temperature was a particularly good idea. The RBMK design was entirely expedient. The Soviets wanted a power reactor
right now so they basically took a military reactor that was only intended to generate plutonium for use in weapons and therefore didn't include any energy collection mechanism, and they scaled it up while tacking on a water cooling loop.
I've always been fascinated by nuclear reactors in general and Chernobyl in particular. I'd love to visit the Zone of Alienation.
Have you heard about
SL-1? It was a low power reactor that was intended to serve remote RADAR stations that were part of the Distant Early Warning Line. The prototype exploded, killing three people. Investigators suggested that the explosion was intentionally caused by one of the operators as a means of committing suicide and killing another operator. Supposedly this man was carrying on an affair with the alleged saboteur's wife. It's an intriguing story.
Quote:
When the first synthetic ammonia plant in Oppau, Germany exploded, hundreds of people died, but BASF got the plant up and running again soon afterward, and today, synthetic ammonia and its derivatives are crucial for feeding the people. About 1/2 of all the nitrogen atoms in your body were run through the Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis.
Well, since you mention this: has anyone read The Alchemy of Air? If so, how was it? It has been on my list of books to read for a while.