re: #857 subsailor68

I’m afraid I don’t understand the fear of nuclear power. As you can guess from my nic, I lived within, oh, twenty feet of one for a number of years, and I still don’t glow in the dark.

Folks cite Chernobyl (and to a lesser extent Three Mile Island) as what can happen. Sure. BUT, the Soviets used BWR (boiling water reactors) whereas we use PWR (pressurized water reactors) which are much, much safer.

In a BWR plant, the water that is used to generate the steam used is contaminated, where in a PWR plant, it is separated from the primary. So, when a BWR plant has a steam leak, it’s contaminated. In a PWR plant, it is not.

It’s fine.

The soviets were experimenting on the number of cooling rods. They had removed 2/3 of them prior to the melt down. DOE has the information.