Word: coolant
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Later, even once men with strings of degrees arrived on the scene, things were little better. A bubble of hydrogen formed near the dome of the reactor, and there was general fear that it might explode or expand enough to push away the reactor coolant and expose the core. Everyone worried, but no one knew what to do--as one NRC official said, "We have got every systems engineer we can find... thinking the problem, and they are not coming up with answers... We don't have a solution, but maybe we are coming up with one." And maybe...
...under the hood. The auto industry is on the threshold of an electronic revolution that will make cars run better, cleaner and more reliably through the use of minicomputers. All GM models in 1981 will have what it calls Computer Command Controls, which regulate emissions, engine speed and coolant temperature...
...crusty Avrea, who frets that inventors are treated as "second-class citizens," holds a 1970 patent for a "coolant recovery system" that includes a small plastic bottle attached to the radiator by tubing. Before Avrea's invention, hot radiators sometimes spilled frothy fluid onto the road through a pressure-relief valve, lowering efficiency and forcing drivers to check the coolant level. Now, that fluid flows into Avrea's container; when the engine cools, the liquid runs back through the tubing into the radiator...
...electricity-generator turbine tripped, or shut itself down. Those actions, says the report, turned what should have been a relatively minor glitch into a potential disaster. Instead of letting the reactor's emergency core cooling system perform its safety functions, the operators paid "undue attention" to keeping the coolant from overfilling the reactor and refused to believe instruments indicating that the plant's fuel core was getting perilously...
...silence. Red lights flash on the instrument panel. One of the reactor's steam condensers has lost its vacuum, causing a turbine "trip," or shutoff. No longer is the reactor able to shed heat produced by its radioactive core. Ominously its temperature climbs, threatening to boil away the coolant. Unless something is done fast, there may be a meltdown, spilling lethal radioactive gases...