Russia Unveils Detailed Plans To Build 21 New Nuclear Power Units By 2030

[PamW]

37. NOPE!!!

Last edited Fri Nov 22, 2013, 08:19 PM - Edit history (1)

Kelvin,

I'm a scientist with a national laboratory; and I have a PhD from MIT.

Early in my career; I worked for Dr. Till on the design of the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR).

Take a look at this diagram of a PWR from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/students/animated-pwr.html

You see that the reactor is cooled by the "yellow" loop of water. That's the reactor coolant.

The turbine and Rankine steam cycle working fluid is the blue loop.

Radioactivity is NOT "contagious" - you don't catch it like the cold. Professor Richard Muller of UC - Berkeley points that out in his book "Physics for Future Presidents"

Only materials exposed to the neutrons in the reactor become radioactive. That includes impurities in the water.

But the reactor coolant doesn't leave the containment building.

The turbine / generator and all the other Rankine steam cycle equipment in a PWR reactor power plant are just as if the source of energy was a coal boiler.

PamW