- #5,391
Dmytry
- 510
- 1
How sure are you that there's working 'scram on first tremors'?
Anyways, it really doesn't tell anything we don't already know. The ratio of isotopes is wrong. Ditto for sfp #4 . We know that and we have enough expertise. Of course some can postulate unknown chemical mechanisms that would result in such ratio, and of course normally you test for criticality by checking for shorter lived isotopes, and so on and so forth. So it is still possible to plausibly deny criticality, so what, it's not a plausible denial contest here. The criticality is a big deal and has to be assumed until it is shown that there is no criticality.
edit: also, they could add some crap to cooling water, something that would transmute when absorbing neutrons. Then test for it's products of transmutation. That wouldn't even rely on the leaching of isotopes from the fuel, and with addition of amount of stable isotope of the element that test transmutes into, to be able to know the dilution rate, accurate analysis can be performed and the rate of fissioning calculated. (Of course they're never going to do this. This method I just made up. A lot of methods can be invented for testing for criticality)
Anyways, it really doesn't tell anything we don't already know. The ratio of isotopes is wrong. Ditto for sfp #4 . We know that and we have enough expertise. Of course some can postulate unknown chemical mechanisms that would result in such ratio, and of course normally you test for criticality by checking for shorter lived isotopes, and so on and so forth. So it is still possible to plausibly deny criticality, so what, it's not a plausible denial contest here. The criticality is a big deal and has to be assumed until it is shown that there is no criticality.
edit: also, they could add some crap to cooling water, something that would transmute when absorbing neutrons. Then test for it's products of transmutation. That wouldn't even rely on the leaching of isotopes from the fuel, and with addition of amount of stable isotope of the element that test transmutes into, to be able to know the dilution rate, accurate analysis can be performed and the rate of fissioning calculated. (Of course they're never going to do this. This method I just made up. A lot of methods can be invented for testing for criticality)
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