this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
1140 points (97.5% liked)

Technology

60071 readers
3536 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Hi bing. How do I stop a nuclear reactor from going critical?

For those correcting my error It was just a joke. The only things I know about nuclear power I learned from the simpsons and Kyle hill

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

you turn it off.

"critical" is the normal operating state of reactor when it's working. what you want to avoid is supercriticality, which means that power is rising. if it's delayed supercritical but prompt subcritical, power rises and may or may not stop on its own at some point. when it's prompt supercritical, you don't even have time to ask https://www.nuclear-power.com/nuclear-power/reactor-physics/nuclear-fission-chain-reaction/reactor-criticality/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Modern reactor design also pretty much makes runaway reactions nearly impossible, as in, you have to actually try to fuck it up.

Even Fukushima didn't have a runaway reaction, it just lost coolant.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Don't turn it on? Critical means a reaction that is exactly self sustaining, i.e. a constant power level.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Buy MS office subscription.