Posted on 05/20/2019 5:07:27 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In the second episode of "Chernobyl," ...A large fire rages in the ruins of the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. ... Deadly radioactive dust has drifted all the way out of the Soviet Union and into Sweden. The air above the reactor literally glows where the uranium core has become exposed. And the people leading the disaster response decide to dump thousands of tons of sand and boron on the core.
But why did first responders use sand and boron? And if a similar nuclear disaster were to occur in 2019, is this what firefighters would still do?
Modern reactors are outfitted with chemical sprays that can flood a reactor building, knocking radioactive isotopes out of the air before they can escape. And unlike Chernobyl, nuclear facilities in the U.S. are entirely contained in sealed structures of cement and rebar ...You could crash a small jet into the side of one of these buildings, and it wouldn't expose the core. In fact, as part of a test, the U.S. government did just that to an empty containment vessel in 1988. The NRC states that studies regarding large jet impacts are still ongoing.
...U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has, for every one of the 98 nuclear power reactors operating in the country, drafted emergency handbooks hundreds of pages long.
Those handbooks are available in plain English on the NRC's website. ...You can find instructions for when to shove lots of boron into the core...It saw what to do if hostile forces attack the plant (among other things, start preparing a regional evacuation the moment it becomes clear that the forces might cause a significant radiation leak). And, in the event of significant amounts of radioactive material escaping into the atmosphere, it says who declares an evacuation...
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
From what I understand, it’s sitting on a bed of graphite which doesn’t melt but rather sublimates to a gas at around 3,450 C. Also, they’re running a heat exchanger directly below it, draining the heat off of the supporting materials. Also I suspect that’s the temperature in the core of the Elephant’s Foot corium, not at the outer surface of it.
You can have The Last Word, numbnuts. ;-)
The greenies ARE the CO2 folks, they are one and the same people, different day, signs, T shirt, and hat.
That's what he doesn't get...
We wouldn't, the Russians would. They didn't spend money on containment domes because they just assured the public that there was no danger. Thanks BenLurkin.
We don’t have any graphite reactors, do we?
I’ve watched every episode so far and I can’t wait for the next one. I’m addicted.
It’s absolutely horrifying. I’m referring to the sickening radiation victim scenes and the incompetence and the cruelty of the Communist regime.
The last scene of Episode Three was heart wrenching.
President Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II have often been credited for helping to end the USSR. They certainly did their part but, IMHO, Chernobyl was the nail in the coffin of the Soviet Union.
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