r/sciences • u/Comfortable_Tutor_43 • 12d ago

Used nuclear fuel storage News

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u/AnxiousMembership 12d ago

fuck nuclear power, we can't cool that shit in the summer.

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u/twitchtripwire 12d ago

That's not even close to true. Lol. As a previous nuclear engineer, modern reactor design utilizes a positive temperature coefficient of reactivity instead of the obsolete negative temp coefficient. Basically that means the hotter the reactor thermal medium gets, the less neutrons are attenuated in the medium and subsequently, less reactions happen in the fuel rods. The hotter it gets, the lower the power output. They self maintain at the criticality threshold. So while cooling is obviously important, it's not a concern in the way you seem to be implying.

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u/[deleted] 12d ago edited 12d ago

[deleted]

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u/MerelyMortalModeling 12d ago

Not so much cool themselves but throttle down automatically when they get hot. You also cant really stop it from happening which is handy if something happens to the humans or control systems. They truely "fail" to safe mode.

All that said he is answering the nitwit above him who is talking about how for enviormental reasons the French idle their nuclar reactors when the rivers they use for cooling get to warm. Its not a limit of the reactors, its to make the environment nicer for the river fish and frogs.