Experimental Boiling Water Reactor from 1956 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: AlbertL
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2021, 02:28:53 am
content: To me, the most interesting aspect of this film is seeing how the reactor is manually controlled and how it responds as the operator works the control rods while closely watching the chart recorder showing the power level:

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2021, 06:00:05 am
content: They changed PID loop parameters by changing the operator!

author: AlbertL
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2021, 08:52:14 pm
content: I'm picturing the chief engineer arriving in the morning after the night shift has left, lights up his pipe, looks at the power chart, shakes his head and mutters "Somebody tell that boy to stick with the decaf - he's gonna wear out that damned control-rod drive before the month is over! I keep sayin' to handle that reactor like you'd handle a woman; make 'er wait a little and she'll give you everything you want."

author: AlbertL
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2021, 11:21:01 pm
content: Here's another great vintage reactor film. It shows the "computing power" that was  behind the operators - a couple of guys with slide rules and binders full of core loading diagrams.The exterior view shown in the opening shot looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place it until near the end, when the narrator casually mentioned that the reactor had been given a new designation: SL-1. That name would become infamous on a frigid January night in 1961.

author: farlander762
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2021, 12:45:47 am
content: Fukushima Daiichi anyone? Those were all boiling water reactors.

author: AlbertL
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2021, 02:23:26 am
content: I wonder if you can still buy a 5-watt "toy" reactor that fits in your garage:https://coldwar-c4i.net/EW-1957-01-28/059.html

author: BrokenYugo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2021, 05:30:20 pm
content: Quote from: AlbertL on September 08, 2021, 02:23:26 amWikipedia is claiming it ran on 93% enriched uranium (weapons grade), I don't think Uncle Sam is gonna let you have that anymore.

author: T3sl4co1l
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 08, 2021, 07:42:58 pm
content: Shrug, a "neutron howitzer" isn't uncommon in physics labs -- you're going to need a fair amount of paperwork to approve it though. Mind, those usually use alpha+beryllium reaction, not fission.Want to say, research reactors these days are always more featureful than that, but new reactors aren't exactly an everyday occurrence these days, let alone publicized, so, no idea. Could very well be there's some lab somewhere, that's recently moved into nuclear physics and built one like that as a graduate project; wouldn't really need to order one whole (if indeed you could still find such), just procure the specialty materials.Cool fact, my alma mater had (likely still has) a lump of plutonium in a handsome (classic 40s-50s hammertone) enclosure, with a Los Alamos placard neatly riveted to it. IIRC it came to something like 150mC or 50g. You'd need more than a few such units smushed together to get anywhere near criticality.Tim

author: dmills
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 09, 2021, 11:23:24 am
content: Depends on how hard you smush and how good your reflectors are.Last I heard, they did not think there was a meaningful lower limit on the theoretical mass required for prompt criticality if you could get it to smush hard enough, 50g is probably pushing it however.Regards, Dan.

author: Ground_Loop
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 11, 2021, 03:43:11 am
content: Quote from: dmills on September 09, 2021, 11:23:24 amBut can enough neutrons be prevented from escaping to sustain the reaction. BTW have any of you seen or maybe contributed to this web site: http:\\nuclearweaponarchive.org