alt Hacker NewsI can explain what the void coefficient is, why it is a dangerous simplification, why neutron moderation is needed, how it is typically controlled, why BWR reactors are inherently less stable than PWR. etc. it's simple really. All the while I have never had anything to do with nuclear power professionally or studied specifically it.
I might have overstated a bit, but by 9th grade (15 year old) this is what was taught to us back then.
Replies
sumanthvepa • yesterday at 3:21 PM
I'm pretty confident that no 15 year old would have learned about void coefficients if Chernobyl hadn't happened.
epiccoleman • yesterday at 4:33 PM
Man you went to a way cooler high school than me. I definitely was not taught anything that would help me understand how a nuclear reactor work.
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> why neutron moderation is needed
What you learned, was it more like:
1. "You need to slow down neutrons so they can react"
or 2. "Here's the graphs of how the neutron absorption and scattering cross sections vary with neutron temperature for H-1, H-2, H-3, Be-9, C-12, O-16, Fe-54, Fe-56, Fe-57, U-233, U-235, U-238, Pu-239, …"
If it was the former, you didn't learn "nuclear engineering".