Word: reactor
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...most Americans neither mourned nor feared Skylab's menacing death, some saw in it yet another in a series of examples of technology outracing man's means of control. A sequence of human and mechanical failures never envisioned by its builders had nearly caused the meltdown of a nuclear reactor at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island. The mysterious cracks emerging in engine mountings of the DC-10 jumbo jets had led to the grounding of the fleet and America's most tragic air disaster. Now a giant spacecraft, crippled at birth six years ago, is plunging toward a premature...
...typical day for Higginbotham and Helton begins with a lecture, then moves on to mathematical exercises-say, computing the rate at which heat will be produced by withdrawing control rods from the reactor's core. But the most important training is the "hands-on," or practical, instruction. The classroom is a gleaming, $3 million air-conditioned simulation of the control rooms in 42 G.E. reactors now in operation around the country. With one important difference: the training center's controls are connected to a computer, not a reactor. Jokes Instructor Jerry Maher: "We have everything but Jane Fonda...
Picking up from the previous day's noisy interruption, Higginbotham and Helton resume the tediously slow job of getting the reactor back into action. One by one they withdraw control rods, watching as the reactor temperature rises. The work must proceed with agonizing care, and the morning is nearly gone before Maher says, "O.K., guys, we're taking her up. Let's shift her onto line and make money." But Janacek stops to check his students' progress. "We've got damn good safety systems," he says. "But they're only as good...
...WATER PUMP FAILURE, STEAM-LINE RUPTURE and RELIEF-VALVE FAILURE, and presses a button. The effect is jarring. Alarms give off an almost hysterical shrill. Control-panel lights flash, and overhead lights dim. He has simulated the rupture of a 21-in.-diameter water line, which can empty the reactor of vital cooling water in less than a minute...
Higginbotham and Helton bring the situation under control before the lapse of that crucial minute. Then, as they would if such an accident had really happened, they begin cooling down the reactor for repairs and, momentarily at least, reflect on what might have been. Just before Janacek had pressed the button, the reactor was nearly up to full power. Now they must start all over...