[LMB] Nuclear Reactor Design

[Stewart Dean]

Some years back (2-3-5?) I remember a front page of the NYTimes Tuesday 
Science section about new reactor design.  One of which was truly 
fail-safe in that if everyone running it just flat out disappeared, the 
reactor would quiesce. Not by virtue of control logic, but inherent in 
the design, the structure.  IIRC, it had to be forced to run hot to 
generate power.
Note 1: Yes, we still don't know what to do with the waste, plutonium 
byproducts are a horror show for aeons, and we're getting very little of 
the available energy out
Note 2: Now the peak oil has come and gone, the nuclear power apologists 
are agitating for new plants...with the same old unstable designs.
To parahprase Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the Galactic Hyperspace Planning 
Council:
"What do you mean you've never built a reactor that's fail-safe? For 
heaven's sake mankind, have you got a death wish?"

-- 
// Stewart Dean == Kingston, NY
// home: 845-336-4815  sdean at sdean.net
// work: 845-758-7475, sdean at bard.edu