Uranium Pebbles May Light the Way

kristy_christie writes "According to Wired News, South Africa's state-run utility giant Eskom and its international partners want to build the world's first commercial 'pebble bed' reactor, which, instead of using fuel rods, 'is packed with tennis ball-size graphite "pebbles," each containing thousands of tiny uranium dioxide particles'. To developers, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor promises a rebirth of nuclear energy. Proponents insist that the reactor's design features make it 'meltdown-proof' and 'walk-away safe'."

Comments

Re:Sweet

[Doc Ruby]

It's spelled "BOOM". Rare enough, but those "accidents" at nuclear power plants cause enough damage, like nuking 25% of Ukraine, that they make the entire industry unsafe. If we're going to bet your energy budget on a "random", yet inevitable, nuclear fission event, because the boom when it inevitably occurs is so large, we can't deny the macroscopic parallel of unpredicted, yet statistically inevitable, exploding power plants that nuke entire countries. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Re:Chernobyl was stupid

[teapot]

[i]There are reports of operators sitting on the control board and people showing up to work drunk.[/i]In my opinion, anything that might kill thousands of people while handled by a drunk should be illegal.