Reactors do not blow up in the way your mind is envisioning it. This is a common misconception/misunderstanding from the numerous amounts of disinformation out there.SiC wrote:I want to have a chance to do an accidental Chernobyl when nuclear power gets added. Imagine that stuff blowing up if not cooled properly (risk/reward), and when it goes the radiation cloud can mutate the biters into whatever freakish mutations you can dream up that should be a pain to deal with
Without getting into the weeds of nuclear physics, hotter water can slow down the nuclear reaction. However, it really depends on how the reactor is designed and the type of reactor. If the water is phase changing into a gas, more voids will form and less of the water will be in a phase where it can act as a good moderator and a heat carrier. So coolant temperature can effect the nuclear reaction rate, but again it depends on the reactor type and design.Liquius wrote:Temperature doesn't play much of a role in the rate of fission. It's not like a normal chemical reaction. If anything hotter water would slow down the rate of fission.mattj256 wrote:In all the nuclear power games I've played, the challenge is to keep the water at the right temperature. Too low and the fission reaction can't sustain itself. Too high and there's a nuclear meltdown.
This is best left to the circuit network, and a power outage here should be potentially catastrophic. (Water temperature keeps rising until the plant explodes.)