[LMB] reactor design

[David McMillan]

Stewart Dean wrote:
> Found the NYTimes article I mentioned...from 1988...more than a few :( years
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE3DA1039F936A25752C1A96E948260
> It /is/ uranium fueled but with the uranium is in high temperature 
> encased pellets instead of fuel rods.  Thorium sounds better tho.
> 
> Re the graphite rods for safety shutdown...using these to immediately 

	Graphite?!?  Are you certain?  B/c I could have sworn that graphite was 
a reaction *enhancer* -- IIRC, it slows down neutrons that would 
otherwise have been going to fast to stay inside the core and trigger 
more fusion reactions.  I thought the control rods were made out of 
cadmium or some similar neutron-capturing material.
	Then again, there's a *lot* of reactor designs out there...

> quench and shutdown a reactor is called SCRAMing a reactor...from 
> Fermi's first reactor under the Manhattan project under the bleachers at 
> the University of Chicago.  The rods were suspended from Manila hemp 
> rope and there was a guy with an ax ready to chop them and drop the rods 
> on command...the Safety Control Rod Axeman or SCRAM

	So *that's* where that title comes from!  I knew a guy who was a nuke 
on the USN sub, and he used to .sig his emails with "Nuclear Reactor 
Axeman" or something like that.  I always thought he was just being 
metaphorical.