Discussion

Locklin on science

harwoodr: This reminds me of the explanation of why the US primarily uses light water reactors.Heavy water reactors (CANDU in the case of the explanation) don't scale down past a certain point - the water flow ends up with weird dead spots and that affects the reaction and cooling of the fuel rods. Since they don't scale down well enough, they aren't suitable for portable use, such as in submarines.I'm not sure if it's still the case, but apparently one of the largest sources of nuclear engineers/scientists in the US was the US navy.This also lead into the story about Jimmy Carter (nuclear sub naval officer at the time) coming to Chalk River in the 50s to help with the NRX meltdown...