Friday, December 4, 2009

Old reactor vessel ready for Botox

Article

Everything now hangs on the success of the test welds, which are being applied near the corrosion spots on the huge, cylindrical vessel that contains the NRU's nuclear reactions and 65,000 litres of heavy water to cool and moderate the reactor. Nitric acid is blamed for the corrosion.

In a nutshell:

-35 year old aluminum vessel has been subjected to nitric acid - Can you say fizz?
-it's totally worm-holed and probably has a micro-structure of moldy bread
-in the world's worse seismic zone (due to Leda clay), and would do something dramatic in an earthquake
-they can't detect the 99% (almost through) wormholes

Now they are pasting over the known leaks with aluminum spray. The vessel is so hot it should just be hauled away and dumped in the back forty, like they've done with all their other rad-waste. Chalk River should be shut down. ... But that's just me talking.

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