That was a carbon pile moderator not a water moderator. The carbon
caught on fire and there it went. Cascading, melting and more and more.

Martin

On 6/10/2016 8:38 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:
"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Jun 2016 18:54:47 -0400, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:

"Ron Henderson"
wrote in message
roups.com...
replying to Jon Danniken, Ron Henderson wrote:
It is impossible to heat water above it's boiling point. At that
point it
becomes steam. Only the steam can be heated above 212°F.


The "boiling point" is the temperature at which the liquid's vapor
pressure equals the pressure of the air (or steam) above it,
allowing
bubbles that form at hot spots to expand against the surrounding
pressure. Unlike the freezing point it is in no sense a constant,
but
varies with imposed conditions.

In mile-high Denver water boils at ~202F/94C. Room-temperature water
will boil in a vacuum chamber. In a PWR-type nuclear power plant the
primary coolant water remains liquid at 600F and 2250PSI. If it
accidentally boils it becomes a less effective neutron moderator and
automatically decreases the rates of fission and heat production.

...while dramatically increasing fear and screaming in the local
population.


In Chernobyl's graphite-moderated RBMK design the rates -increase-
without water. This is the resulting melted core of Reactor 4 in the
basement:
http://rarehistoricalphotos.com/the-...disaster-1986/

Despite the destruction and dangers they kept the three other reactors
at the site operating for many years.
https://matteroffactsblog.wordpress....g-power-plant/

--jsw