Hacker News Reader

Fail safe means that in a catastrophic failure of the reactor’s regulatory systems it stops functioning rather than overloads. Entropy trends it to not working rather than working too much - for example a gas furnace will stop burning if the systems running the furnace stop working and are unable to provide more gas to the burn chamber.

Is that how Navy reactors work?

View on HN

Chernobyl used a neutron moderator with a positive temperature coefficient of reactivity (liquid sodium), while U.S. Navy reactors use water, which has a negative coefficient of reactivity. The more energy you put into the water surrounding the reactor, the less reactive it allows the reactor to be. This has a stabilizing effect on the system. U.S. Navy reactors are inherently stable and inherently safe. To answer your question directly, yes entropy will trend toward making the reactor produce less heat with no intervention.

Chernobyl did not use liquid sodium. It was a graphite moderated thermal spectrum reactor with water as the coolant.

I appreciate the correction. I had fusion of knowledge with a different reactor accident. https://allthingsnuclear.org/dlochbaum/nuclear-plant-acciden...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com