Nuclear power plant control room - photo

[MeJasonT]

Im trying to find the panel that looks somthing like this

Attachment 35742

vitally important apparently.

There have been a few Scifi films showing a Submarine jumping out of the water. not somthing that is encouraged. Bit of an issue with buoyancy, you can capsise a submarine when its ballast tanks are out of the water. The precurser to this action is usually a SCRAM - shutting down the reactor and putting the sub on the roof as they call it. I only have knowledge of one submarine ever doing this and that was HMS Revenge (UK RN) which hit and underwater mountain. Interesting to see it in so many films when its an action of last resort. My interest in nuclear is from two angles really, you would never guess i was in the Navy and the other is the fact i only live about 35 miles from BNFL Sellafield or as we like to call it Springfield.

Its a weird environment to work in, you are getting low doses (obviously planned) when your working in that environment but there is no obvious ill effect or indication that its there. Electricity is more obvious, high voltage buzzes like a bitch. If we thought of covid as being a nuclear incident would the public's behaviour towards it be any different? Ie. if your were not on deaths door from radiation sickness would one consider it safe to go out night clubbing or rioting. Its hard to understand a silent killer, most of us have experienced a tickle from electricity and would very sensibly and with some care and logic avoid it like the plague. Even putting a PP3 battery on your tounge is not advised and yet some people live in Granite houses with quite high levels of radiation emitting from the stone.

I think i was about 10 when i went to a presentation from BNFL about mini reactors, the thought was at some point in the future it would be possible to have somthing the size of a matchbox power a home. The fuel required would be no more than the size of a pencil dot. Roll on some 40 years and they are now talking about mini reactors constructed to provide power for small towns and districts with the reactor and machinary fitting into somthing the size of a shipping container. from a safety angle that would seriously concern me. if it suffered a thermal runaway the outcome would be like the fuel explosion in Bopal which took out 10 villages.