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heated fuel rod

Se7en

Well-Known Member
Jun 27, 2010
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73
Ca
so what happens if a spent fuel rod heats up and drops through the earth surface and hits water? will it shoot into the sky like a rocket and emit radiation? I'd like to see a video illustration of that & whats bad about a fuel rod over heating and leaking radiation.....
 

when I was a reactor operator (R.O.) at the A.E.C. site in Idaho, we has a video of an incident where th R.O. was manually pulling the rods (increasing the reactor power) , and he screwed it up.

the control rod was ejected up and out of the core it impaled the RO and pinned him to the ceiling of the reactor vessel.:blink:

I'll hunt around and see if i can find the video

found it, SL-1 Accident - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory - The World's First Deadly Atomic Accident


Image Archive: The SL-1 Reactor Accident - Control Rod Embedded in Ceiling

this was a small reactor rated at only 3 Mega watts when he moved the rods out too far the reactor went to 20,000 MW in 0.1 seconds

I can't get the link to work,.... just do a search for "SL-! control rod impales operator" and it will find it
 
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so what happens if a spent fuel rod heats up and drops through the earth surface and hits water? will it shoot into the sky like a rocket and emit radiation? I'd like to see a video illustration of that & whats bad about a fuel rod over heating and leaking radiation.....


:blink: Anybody that actually has to ask that question wouldn't be able to understand the answer. :whistle:
 
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when I was a reactor operator (R.O.) at the A.E.C. site in Idaho, we has a video of an incident where th R.O. was manually pulling the rods (increasing the reactor power) , and he screwed it up.

the control rod was ejected up and out of the core it impaled the RO and pinned him to the ceiling of the reactor vessel.:blink:

I'll hunt around and see if i can find the video

found it, SL-1 Accident - Idaho National Engineering Laboratory - The World's First Deadly Atomic Accident


Image Archive: The SL-1 Reactor Accident - Control Rod Embedded in Ceiling

this was a small reactor rated at only 3 Mega watts when he moved the rods out too far the reactor went to 20,000 MW in 0.1 seconds

I can't get the link to work,.... just do a search for "SL-! control rod impales operator" and it will find it

Great. When i get home i'll check it out.
 
Remember the thread about the words on the governments watch list on the internet?

VS you have most likely made the list with this thread and we are all now accomplices.
 
On January 3, 1961, the reactor was being prepared for restart after a shutdown of eleven days over the holidays. Maintenance procedures were in progress, which required the main central control rod to be manually withdrawn a few inches to reconnect it to its drive mechanism; at 9:01 p.m. this rod was suddenly withdrawn too far, causing SL-1 to go prompt critical instantly. In four milliseconds, the heat generated by the resulting enormous power surge caused water surrounding the core to begin to explosively vaporize. The water vapor caused a pressure wave to strike the top of the reactor vessel, causing water and steam to spray from the top of the vessel. This extreme form of water hammer propelled control rods, shield plugs, and the entire reactor vessel upwards. A later investigation concluded that the 26,000 pounds (12,000 kg) vessel had jumped 9 feet 1 inch (2.77 m) and the upper control rod drive mechanisms had struck the ceiling of the reactor building.[7][8] The spray of water and steam knocked two of the men onto the floor, killing one and severely injuring another. One of the shield plugs on top of the reactor vessel impaled the third man through his groin and exited his shoulder, pinning him to the ceiling.[7] The victims were Army Specialists John A. Byrnes (age 27) and Richard Leroy McKinley (age 22), and Navy Electrician's Mate Richard C. Legg (age 26).[9] It was later established that Byrnes had lifted the rod and caused the excursion, Legg was standing on top of the reactor vessel and was impaled and pinned to the ceiling, and McKinley, who stood nearby, was later found alive by rescuers.[7] All three men succumbed to injuries from physical trauma (not the radiation).[7]

This poor guy had so much residual radioactivity that they used a crane to put his body in a lead lined box on the back of a flatbed to transport his body to a de-contamination faculty, and was later buried in a lead lined casket at Arlington Cemetery.
What a way to go.......

73
Jeff
 
actually,. that was just before Hymie,... but it is where the phrase about never giving anything technical to the Army came from:whistle:

Ha!
The Army thing is funny.


I do disagree and believe that Rickover was active in naval reactor development at that time.

"In February 1949, he received an assignment to the Division of Reactor Development, Atomic Energy Commission, and then assumed control of the Navy's effort as Director of the Naval Reactors Branch in the Bureau of Ships..."

.


.
 
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