How Nuclear Power can be Dangerous
You won’t learn anything about this from watching the conventional media, who works hard at protecting the way things are – and provides little technical information, knowing Americans are not interested in such stuff. Cringely, by contrast, is a gold-mine of information:
A boiling water reactor does just what it sounds like — it boils water to make steam that drives a turbine generator. This is as opposed to a pressurized water reactor that uses the nuclear reaction to heat a coolant that never really boils because it is under high pressure, then sends that coolant through a heat exchanger which heats water to make steam to drive the generator. Boiling water reactors are simpler, cheaper, but generally aren’t made anymore because they are perceived as being less safe. That’s because the exotic coolant in the pressurized water reactor can contain boric acid which absorbs neutrons and can help (or totally) control the nuclear reaction. You can’t use boric acid or any other soluble boron-laced neutron absorbers in a boiling water reactor because doing so would contaminate both the cooling system and the environment.
Japan has just lost 20 percent of its electrical generating capacity because it was using obsolete nuclear power plants – no doubt after being assured that they were perfectly safe.
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