Recent content by Zackary Miller

Let's see, when you are designing something, whatever it might be, you generally make certain that idiots will not damage it. Yes, nothing can be completely fool proof, but you can make something fool resistant, as in making it so that if someone shuts down all safeties, brings it to a low...

From my limited understanding voiding in sodium coolant in a fast reactor is worse than voiding when you have water moderator/coolant as the sodium only absorbs neutrons as far as the nuclear reaction itself goes (yes, it cools the core, preventing some expansion from heat, but not much else)...

I was touching the globe, the GM counter was around three feet from the globe. The GM detector was also touching my iphone during this. And yes, I really should of worded that better.

Than how do you explain my iphone somehow being set off by it as explained here? I am not arguing with you, I just want your take on the situation.

The second is the current setup I have, unfortunately I cannot so easily take it apart so I will have to leave it alone. ____________________________________ I left my geiger counter on top of my cell phone and turned on my plasma globe. While touching the plasma globe with the geiger counter...

The reason I recently got another GM counter is because the first was a homebuilt one. So how would turn off the high voltage? Do I rewire my GM counter a bit so that it bypasses the HV power supply? Oh, and another thing beta radiation would explain the magnet seemingly blocking the...

I see, exactly as I guessed, radio waves interfering with my geiger counter. Thanks for the help.

The reason I did not place this in the nuclear engineering forum is because I feel that it is closer to an electrical engineering problem than a nuclear engineering problem.Now to the question. I recently got another geiger counter and a plasma globe for my birthday. Being the person I am I...

Does anyone know of any good textbooks on fast reactors and/or breeder reactors?

You can make U-233 from Th-232 in a MSR, however that will produce Pa-233, which has a half life of 27 days and a neutron capture cross section > 1 for thermal neutrons, which necessitates constant reprocessing and thus increases the cost of operation as a reactor operator you have to both run a...

So, as gmax137 stated, naval reactors actually increase and decrease in power output according to the needs of the ship, but what of this 5% enrichment comfort zone preventing such reactors being used for civilian purposes? That seems a bit odd considering it would (from my layman's...

Wonderful movie as many others have said before. Funny in some places, but sort of serious in others, and the wonderful part is that it does not pretend to be some dissertation on life the universe and everything (which obviously would be about the number 42) but rather about getting to see a...

I was reading my textbook, Power Generation, Operation, and Control, third edition, and was thinking of the possibility of supplying peak load using a nuclear fission reactor. The reasoning behind my interest is that to supply the grid with nuclear energy at anywhere near 100% from nuclear you...