Quote:
Originally Posted by retmil46
One of the problems he mentioned was that they were having a deuce of a time designing pump and valve seals that wouldn't continually leak a small amount of helium.
|
It's sorta fun to think about - generally I'm opposed to nuclear power but the science is interesting. It seems that most all the plants in the world are of a flawed design, compared to some of what's been discovered since.
What worries me though, is that boosters of the stuff get so invested in the idea working, they overlook simple things like metal fatigue, and problems with seals and pumps, like you mention.
On the sodium cooled IFR, holy crap, liquid sodium at around 800 F? That stuff is seriously reactive at room temp. I gather that a large percentage of sodium cooled reactors have had serious grief with sodium fires.
None of this stuff is ever going to be a problem . . . until it is.