[ RadSafe ] Safety Issues Linger as Nuclear Reactors Shrink in Size

[Glenn R. Marshall]

Liquid sodium and water don't play well together

 
Glenn Marshall, CHP, RRPT

-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Doug Huffman
Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 12:58 PM
To: radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Safety Issues Linger as Nuclear Reactors Shrink in Size

On 3/19/2010 11:42, Brennan, Mike (DOH) wrote:
> I am a fan of the idea of smaller, modular reactors, but I have to agree
> with the environmentalists who are not impressed with liquid metal
> cooled reactors.  They have great characteristics, and made the Alfa
> class submarines a nightmare (I was on Active Duty when the Alfa first
> came out, and there was much discontent when it became clear that they
> could go faster and deeper than our torpedoes.)  However, any reactor
> that only gets to shut down once, whether it has been running decades or
> weeks, has a real downside.
>

USS Seawolf SSN-575 was commissioned in 1957 with a liquid-sodium plant 
and converted to light water S2W two years later due to lessons learned 
then and now forgotten?
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