Howard R Garner wrote:


Very true. If the load is removed, they do NOT dump it to the cooling
towers and try to maintain the reactors on line. This calls for the
reactors to go to minimum power or to be shut down. In a multiple
reactor plant, one unit may stay up with minimum power providing power
to maintain cooling water flow to all the systems.

But, even if you trip the reactor immediately, the fission reaction
takes an hour or more to subside,
unless you poison the reactor by dumping thousands of gallons of borated
water into it, which will
require about a 6 month shutdown to recover from. So, even if you trip
the reactor immediately,
the thermal output will go to about 50% in 12 hours, and take 2 weeks
more to go to about 20%!
That is the fission tail of the fission daughters breaking down
spontaneously, and the spontaneous
fissions don't pay any attention to control rods.

Jon