Quote:
Originally Posted by ikalugin
1) citing wiki is a crime in itself.
2) while graphite is indeed a moderator, the moderators job is to (broadly speaking) speed up the reaction, not to slow it down or shut it down.
3) as moderator is the de-facto standard internal filler material of the reactor (the channels for control and fuel rods etc are inside tubes placed inside of the graphite blocks) it is there are all times.
4) majority of channels do not have (moving) control rods and thus have simple covers on top of them.
5) using TV series as a source is a bad idea.
|
Point 2) : Yes, you are correct that this is the effect, however the reason is critical here. The reason it speeds up the reaction is because it slows down the neutrons. If the neutrons are not slowed down, they will not cause a fission reaction. The water in this reactor served as absorbing neutrons, thus it remove the trigger for fission reaction and that water was then replaced with something which introduced a trigger for reaction.