Wired on China's Safe Nuclear "Hydrogen Machines"
Pebble Reactor design 
AEman strongly recommends reading Spenser Reiss's article "Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom" in Wired this month. Here's an excerpt that describes the fantastic modular, meltdown proof new design that's being fielded in China as we eat Turkey.
How a Pebble-bed Reactor Works:
- Hot Rocks: Thousands of billiard ball-sized fuel pebbles power the reactor. The balls are coated with impermeable silicon carbide and packed with 15,000 tiny uranium dioxide flecks, each of which is encased in its own silicon carbide shell.
- Recycling Center: The fuel pebbles cycle through the reactor vessel from top to bottom, heating helium. Pebbles that are still potent return to the top; spent and damaged ones collect at the bottom.
- Spin Zone: The hot gas flows into the water-cooled conversion unit and pushes the turbine, generating electricity. It then cycles back to the reactor vessel to be reheated.
posted by Andy Bochman at 10:06 PM
 
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