Negr, explain Chernobyl and refute Nuke asteroid defense.

tycho102 · 01-15-06, 10:26 PM

Nuclear engineering has come a long way since the 50's and 60's. So has material science.

There is always a benefit, in running a nuclear reactor, when you can use un-enriched uranium. Enriching uranium-235, processing plutonium and uranium-233, all take just as much industrial organization as actually building and running the electrical grid itself. India is finding out about this, because they have vast stores of thorium, but lack the industrial infrastructure to process it into usable uranium.

The only reason why the majority of western nations use enriched uranium, instead of plutonium breeder reactors and core reprocessing, is because of a 1950's and 1960's anti-proliferation mentality. Back then, no one knew how to enrich or purify any of the fissionable metals, and as such, adopted a proprietary system. We'll sell you the stuff, but you can't have the source code.

The world has changed. North Korea and Pakistan changed it significantly when they were selling nuclear enrichment plans and the engineering details for building plutonium breeder reactors. The old methods of anti-proliferation no longer work, and in fact, now they work against us.

The technology is out there. It's like when years ago when you could just telnet into ARPAnet; no need for passwords, because people just didn't have modems (or computers) at that time. Now everyone has access to a modem, and everyone has access to nuclear technology. We try to keep tabs on the beryllium, and the aluminum tubes, but there are so many "dual uses" for things, it's impossible to keep track.

One critical thing to remember about Chernobyl:

The reactor engineer had gone home for the weekend. He wasn't "needed" because the test was being done on the turbine. In any "western" country, you'd have a team of reactor engineers on every single shift, not just one per plant...

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01-15-06, 10:26 PM	#1
tycho102 Ace of the Deep Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 1,100 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Nuclear engineering has come a long way since the 50's and 60's. So has material science. There is always a benefit, in running a nuclear reactor, when you can use un-enriched uranium. Enriching uranium-235, processing plutonium and uranium-233, all take just as much industrial organization as actually building and running the electrical grid itself. India is finding out about this, because they have vast stores of thorium, but lack the industrial infrastructure to process it into usable uranium. The only reason why the majority of western nations use enriched uranium, instead of plutonium breeder reactors and core reprocessing, is because of a 1950's and 1960's anti-proliferation mentality. Back then, no one knew how to enrich or purify any of the fissionable metals, and as such, adopted a proprietary system. We'll sell you the stuff, but you can't have the source code. The world has changed. North Korea and Pakistan changed it significantly when they were selling nuclear enrichment plans and the engineering details for building plutonium breeder reactors. The old methods of anti-proliferation no longer work, and in fact, now they work against us. The technology is out there. It's like when years ago when you could just telnet into ARPAnet; no need for passwords, because people just didn't have modems (or computers) at that time. Now everyone has access to a modem, and everyone has access to nuclear technology. We try to keep tabs on the beryllium, and the aluminum tubes, but there are so many "dual uses" for things, it's impossible to keep track. One critical thing to remember about Chernobyl: The reactor engineer had gone home for the weekend. He wasn't "needed" because the test was being done on the turbine. In any "western" country, you'd have a team of reactor engineers on every single shift, not just one per plant...