'Tree-sized' Nuclear Reactor to power rural Alaska houses, cars

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Sikander
Wrong insofar as the issues I'm addressing are safety and the environmental impact and economy. Rail guns use electricity, which we are going to make with nuclear power, thus avoiding the vast bulk of the greenhouse gasses, as well as saving a ton of money on rocket fuel and rocket launches. This system would be pretty damned simple (several orders of magnitude simpler than launching a rocket IMO), which would make it a lot safer than launching stuff with rockets. The only reason that we use rockets now is that the satellites and astronauts we send up would be destroyed by the g forces that a rail gun would generate. We don't need to worry about wrecking nuclear waste in the same manner.

I'm not talking about safety, I'm talking about efficiency. It requires a lot of energy to launch it into space.

[Sarxis]

Even if this small reactor failed and exposed its core, it wouldn't be a disaster like 3mile or Chernobyl. Not in a regional way anyhow.

I want one.

[Wraith]

--"The funny thing is that coalplants are actually producing radioactive pollution."

The funnier thing is that, last I heard, several areas of the Capitol building in DC didn't meet the radiation guidlines nuclear power plants are under...

--"The part about burns faster at same power, makes no sense."

I don't think they expressed it very well. I think what happens is that, since the reaction is only sustained by the reflector, only the area of the rod surrounded by it at any time is going to be producing. This means that no matter how fast you slide the reflector around, you can't exceed the standard power output. Letting it drop faster just means it gets to the bottom sooner.
It sounds like there's really no way to make the thing go critical unless you do something like takes the whole assembly apart and bang the rods together (don't try this at home, kids).

--"you can't operate a system like that without operators for the steam system and the electrical system."

You're not going to be running a diesel plant without them, either. I doubt there's much of a staffing difference one way or another.

Wraith
When you say 'the nuclear accelerator just slammed into reverse', what EXACTLY do you mean?

[TCO]

you are still going to have a reactor operator. I bet you...

[Dis]

bah! RO's don't do anything anyways unless they are starting up or shutting down the reactor

Nice feature of using water as a moderator I suppose.

[The Mad Monk]

Worried about future employment, TCO?