Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
So, I wander into this nuclear reactor...
This morning's news that the NRC has declined to force nuclear power plants to take additional precautions to prevent the breach of a nuclear reactor's core by attack with a jetliner comes as little surprise, given the Bush administration's attitudes about actual security issues.
But, as always when I hear such news reports, I was taken back to a sunny spring morning some 30 years ago, when me and a couple of college buddies wandered into a nuclear reactor...
It was the weekend of St. Pats day, and we were at the University of Missouri - Rolla to party with a friend of ours who was an engineering student there. I think it was Friday morning, and our friend had some classes he had to attend, so myself and my two friends decided to just explore the campus a bit (we all attended schools elsewhere).
I had considered Rolla for school myself a few years previously, when I had been thinking of going into physics (a dream derailed by poor higher-math skills). So when we came across the research reactor building, I wanted to have a look.
We just wandered in. No, seriously. We just wandered into the building, through a couple of sets of doors, and soon found ourselves standing at a railing, looking down at the glowing blue core of the nuclear reactor. In this day and age it is hard to imagine such a thing - and even at the time it seemed more than a little odd.
A few minutes after we came in, a nice fellow who fit the stereotype image of a science professor came over to us. Short, grey, bearded, balding, wearing a white lab smock over his shirt and jeans. He sort of looked us over, asked what we were up to...and then gave us an impromptu tour of the place (after tagging us with personal dosimeters).
It was fascinating, to me at least. The reactor core at this facility sits at the bottom of a large swimming pool, about 20 feet down. That provides all the necessary protection from the radiation generated from operation of the fission reactor (which doesn't produce much power, and doesn't use the sort of fuel used in nuclear weapons). Herr Doktor explained all this to us non-scientists, and also explained the eerie blue glow coming off the reactor (which was then in operation).
It was a color like I've never seen before or since - a soft electric blue that was both intriguing and repulsive. I knew what it was, having been interested in physics: Cherenkov radiation, caused when the radioactive particles generated by the fission reactions are faster than the speed of light in the water. But it's the sort of thing that lasts in the memory, embedded there in a way not unlike a religious experience - hard to describe, or explain, or convince others of, yet extremely vivid for the one who experienced it.
Now, I'm not religious. I'm an atheist, in fact. I understand what that blue glow is - yet, whenever someone claims that they have had a religious experience, I can tie it to that same feeling I had on first seeing that other-worldly blue glow.
Well, anyway, I had to share that personal experience, and add a bit of perspective on the changes we've seen in terms of security over the last 30 years.
(Cross posted at Daily Kos.)
Jim Downey
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I work in the commercial nuclear power industry
And I have seen that glow many times, though to my eyes it looks more purplish than blue, although that depends somewhat on the intensity. When I worked in Canada briefly they were making cores for use in medical treatment machines and those glowed white. I have never seen anything so radioactive since.
The impact of a jet could indeed disrupt some of the secondary electronic systems, but they have several backups in place so I don't think the danger is that great. As far as direct danger to the core itself let me reassure you that a plane impact is no threat. Nuclear reactor cores are housed in a containment building whose walls are several feet thick reinforced concrete, and inside those the reactor itself is covered with a 'missile shield' (and yes it is actually called that) nor are power plants hundreds of feet high and made of glass. They are not easy targets, and remember planes are not missiles. They are meant to fly, not penetrate several feet of concrete. There may be legitimate threats to the power plants, but planes aren't really one of them. Besides I don't think that trick will work again. Not on anything with passengers anyway.
It is my understanding that most weapons these days are made with Plutonium. There are reactors which can use Plutonium as a fuel, but those are only for research or military applications I think. The U.S. plants use U-235 fuel which is enriched less than 10%. Weapons grade Uranium 235 requires enrichment well above 90%. This is why a reactor core will never explode like a bomb (even aside from the fact that it isn't designed to do so.
A nuclear physics illiterate here...
... with a probably dumb question - can anything actually exceed the speed of light? Outside of some of my fave science fiction, that is :)
-Radi
You betcha.
The thing is, light can be slowed down by a medium such as water. So you get what is essentially a "shock wave" as the beta-radiation particles build up to and then surpass the light being generated by the same reaction. The Wiki article-link in my piece explains it a lot more completely, and is recommended on the UMR site.
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
Whoa nelly
Nothing, thus far, has been proven to exceed the speed of light...to my knowledge. The speed of light can indeed be modified through different media but...
In a vacuum.
Rick, you're right, nothing exceeds the speed of light in normal space in a vacuum. I'd first offer the Wiki articles here and here - the first one of those supported by the UMR's own site. They explain it as well as my non-mathematical mind can grasp.
Where things really get weird is with some of the quantum effects: entaglement, causality (there have been experiments where light has been slowed so much that it exits a medium before it entered!), and so-called "slow light".
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
Very neat!
I never got to see the pile when I worked at a nuke plant. Then again I was just supplying parts...(pushing carts and driving forklifts).
As for the ruling, I personally am not that concerned about planes flying into the plants. It's not like the plant itself would explode afterward.
It really was...
...fairly incredible to see that color. I've never seen anything else even remotely like it - though the aurora would probably come closest (and for similar reasons).
The big concern about attack with jets, as I understand it, is the resulting fire causing problems with the cooling system for the reactor, which could potentially lead to meltdown.
That said, I think that there are very solid reasons to consider nuclear power as a "green" alternative to coal or natural gas, and I'm not inherently hostile to the building of new nuke plants (there's one about 20 miles from here - I never lose any sleep over that fact).
Jim Downey
"Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering."
- R. Buckminster Fuller
RIght
True, but contrary to public ignorance the pile wouldn't explode. The resulting expulsion of the primary steam in a commercial reactor WOULD release radioactive steam into the air but there wouldn't be a little Hiroshima that takes place because of a jet attack. It's not possible to get that kind of reaction.