Vorl Bek <[email protected]> wrote:
> I thought that reactors were designed so that inserting rods of > some material would kill the reaction. I imagine they would have > battery power for long enough to insert the rods; heck, maybe > they even have a manual way to crank the motor to do it. > They can all be gravity actuated as far as I know. The rods are above, and they fall straight down into the reactor core. That is called a reactor SCRAM. It does stop the reaction. Every reactor undergoes an emergency SCRAM from time to time, usually in response to a stuck valve or a clogged pipe. The Three Mile Island reactor accident began with a SCRAM from clogged pipe. Fukushima was scrammed in the first seconds of the earthquake. However, that is not enough to prevent a catastrophe. At Fukushima the tsunami destroyed their generator capacity, and cut their connection to the network, which led to the destruction of the reactors and the hydrogen explosions. - Jed
