I have a question about nuclear weapons. Anyone here know much about them?

[AtheistCrusader]

92. I wouldn't call the xenon poisoning 'augmenting'.

As the xenon bled away, power rose so quickly water coolant couldn't be kept liquid. In that manner, I suppose you could say it was a loss of coolant flow, but really, the mistake was running the reactor so long at partial power, and then attempting to return to full power. (and they were told not to do this, and it was policy to shut it all the way down, not return to full power from partial power)

The reactor core was a bit like an aircraft, flying at the edge of, and in a stall, entering a cave. They increased power, the aircraft comes out of the stall, suddenly gains lift, and wham, you hit the ceiling.

Coolant, control rods, nothing could stop it. The loss of coolant wasn't the cause. Operator error was.


The negative temperature coefficient of the IFR is an interesting safety feature. Pretty cool, so to speak.