[Gllug] [OT] Technobabble

[Chris Bell]

On Sun 20 Nov, John Hearns wrote:
> 

> No uranium mining in the UK, AFAIK. 
> Then again, we were governed by people in the 1950's who considered
> conducting atmospheric tests at Dounreay.
> 
> 

> 
> Still would be good to find where the Calder Hall and Windscale piles
> got their fule from though.
> 

   The Russians built many reactors similar to those at Chernobyl despite
being very strongly advised not to use the design, which was found to be
unstable when our own very similar research reactor at Calder Hall took off.
   We also had problems with a research facility consisting of a number of
parallel horizontal tubes. Access to the fuel rods was from the front, but
debris from spent rods was falling to the floor at the back and starting to
go critical.
   The disposal of spent fuel in a geological subduction zone does seem like
a good idea, although the Americans decided to try dropping a number of fuel
containers into a salt deposit where they would melt their way down through
the salt. They started to bottom out at the same level and go critical, so
had to be recovered in a hurry.
   I have a few handouts from exhibitors at political party conferences,
including CEGB, BNFL, and Nyrex. The staff were enthusiastic, and felt that
it was safe to have some waste storage under a few feet of water. Probably
true if you can build containment pools which do not leak.


-- 
Chris Bell

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