The Future Of Energy - James Woudhuysen [UKH+] (6/10)

[soylentgreenb]

Minor technical error: RBMK reactors(Chernobyl et al) used two moderators, light water and graphite. Graphite is a better moderator than light water.

When water(which is also the coolant) started boiling, this introduced voids of steam in the reactor which the neutrons could quickly zip across until they hit the graphite moderator on the other side. This makes moderation more efficient, not _less_ efficient.

[KoanPhilosopher]

Thank you, corrections are always welcome.

Interesting, so I'm assuming that the higher the velocity of a neutron, the greater the share of momentum the moderator will strip from a colliding neutron? I realise there is an optimum velocity for neutrons, since a high speed is dangerous and a low speed will not continue the fission chain reaction.