Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!prometheus!pmk From: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M Koloc) Newsgroups: net.sci Subject: Re: Request for info . . . "graphite fire" Message-ID: <226@prometheus.UUCP> Date: Thu, 8-May-86 04:49:54 EDT Article-I.D.: promethe.226 Posted: Thu May 8 04:49:54 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 14-May-86 02:16:31 EDT References: <142@mcc-hi.UUCP> <1144@psivax.UUCP> Reply-To: pmk@prometheus.UUCP (Paul M Koloc) Organization: Prometheus II, Ltd., College Park, MD 20740-0222 Lines: 93 Keywords: Soviet Union, nuclear fire, nuclear reactors >>The Cable News Network, as well as National Public Radio, have >>been using the term "nuclear fire" and "graphite fire" in conjunction >>with what appears to be a tragedy in the Soviet Union. In article <1144@psivax.UUCP> friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen) writes: >In article <142@mcc-hi.UUCP> shook@mcc-hi.UUCP (Rob Shook) writes: > To start with, "nuclear fire" is just a meaningless buzz >.. graphite [is a] form of carbon .. burns *very* well ..oxygen The graphite reactors run hotter than do the water bath variety here. In this incident the following scenario is more or less likely. The reactor had been running for a long time so that many short lived radioisotopes had been built up and these can be tricky when the graphite moderators are removed to replace spent fuel cells or the moderator rods themselves. They continue to generate heat so that the water cooling lines to the reactor could have been damaged. Without adequate water cooling the reactor fuel could melt down, quite quickly unless the moderator rods were SCRAMmed within a few moments. After the moderators have essentially stopped the nuclear chain reaction by isolating the fuel cells, the reactor nevertheless continued to melt down due to the energy of the radioisotope decay, and the lack of coolant. The graphite can reach temperatures of 4000 degrees before melting, but as it gets to very high temperatures it will burn first with oxygen and can even make reactive cyanide like chemicals with the atmospheric nitrogen and water. At normal temperatures this would not happen. Therefore the term "nuclear [driven] fire". Graphite itself is difficult to ignite, but once ignited in the presence of a lot of oxygen can burn very vigorously. In this case nuclear energy heating caused it to generate reactive gases which were probably "too toxic chemically" so they were vented. The introduction of fresh oxygen then mixed with the gases and they exploded, taking off the top of the large bay building. Then there was ample oxygen, so the graphite fire burst into an inferno. The slowly melting fuel began to coalesce to generate a chain reaction. The consequence of the additional nuclear and chemical heat was a boiling and chemical vaporization away of the volatile isotopes and chemicals. A few days later the Russians dumped sand and boron on the burning reactor pile using helicopters. After a couple more days it was covered and the fire was smothered and put out. The chain reaction quieted down, and some diminishing steam was generated by the cooling of the hot graphite blocks by the wet sand. Every thing is wonderful for 4 more days and then... Yippee (Phonetic for the appropriate Russian word), the sand is dry (it's a good insulator) ... the fuel begins to re-heat, ever so slowly it begins to melt, ... and consolidate and react faster and faster and then.. ... it pushes the fiery hot graphite base right through and into the molten supporting concrete floor. Meanwhile, back top side, a little powdery smoke and more noticeable radioactivity levels begin to steadily increase at an accelerating rate. The fire is out, Mayday is over, and the GRIM REAPER prepares to cut another swath. Gone are the farmers who were preparing the soil only a day or two before in the fertile Ukrainian soil for the view of the camera and the political ministers of farming. As the train rumbles away with its last load of survivors, the first shudder is felt for surrounding miles, as contact is made with the underground water table. Steam pressure builds; uranium, nearly one hundred tons of it, begins its lethal breeding frenzy into ... .... . . Plutonium. Some weeks later the molten fuel continues to melt and super-pressurize as it burrows deeper into through subsoils and limestone, away from the fickle human consciousness. You could almost hear this vengeful infant of Jupiter babbling to itself like a small boy playing in the sandbox and clawing his hand deeper and deeper into a mound of sand. . .. You can't catch me now, you can't, you can't stop me now, you can't, you can never, never get me again, .. but I'm gonna get you, I am I am. Then on the seventh day it blew up. The satellite pictures were really great. It remains there to become the mankind's last and only volcano. . ... The cloud's not got here yet. . People just didn't seem to care, it was all over,. ... and they just actually came out and sat on the porch, and waited for it. When it did come it was at night. I was in my bedroom. I saw a blue flash! There was not light outside... . And I saw it when I had my eyelids tightly closed. It was beautiful .. . but I can't .. remember .. what is beauty. Support your local fusion shop! +---------------------------------------------------------+--------+ | Paul M. Koloc, President: (301) 445-1075 | FUSION | | Prometheus II, Ltd.; College Park, MD 20740-0222 | this | | {umcp-cs | seismo}!prometheus!pmk; pmk@prometheus.UUCP | decade | +---------------------------------------------------------+--------+