Word: reactor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...news that buzzed through Washington last week marked another awesome milestone in the onrush of the atomic age. The confirmed facts: in the drab wastes of the Negev desert, tiny, semi-industrialized Israel, with the help of France, is building a 24,000-kw. nuclear reactor with the capacity to produce plutonium, a key ingredient for both a fission and hydrogen bomb. By 1964, estimated some U.S. atom experts, Israel could in theory set off a killingly effective atomic blast...
...nation of any size with brains and money can now set itself up in the atomic business. And it can be done in relative secrecy. Though one of 40 nations with whom the U.S. shares information on the peaceful uses of atomic energy, Israel had not mentioned the reactor to U.S. embassy officials in Tel Aviv, who were led to believe that the Negev construction was for a textile plant. About a month ago U.S. intelligence sources got pictures of the plant-and it was suddenly clear what Israel was up to (the installation was also distantly visible from...
...Atomic Energy Commission usually hates to tell about accidents to nuclear reactors. Reason: the public gets so jumpy. But about the latest such accident it not only lifted secrecy but has made a color motion picture snowing the tricky and dangerous work of repairing a reactor at Oak Ridge, Tenn. The film shows dozens of scientists and technicians working for nine months to patch two small holes that had been burned in the 5/16-in. zirconium shell of the reactor's fiercely radioactive core...
This was no work for amateurs or bunglers. To gain access to the heavily shielded core vessel, high-density concrete slabs first had to be lifted by remotely controlled cranes, exposing the underground room that houses the reactor and its maze of pipes and pumps. The cell was then flooded with 20 ft. of water to protect the technicians from radiation while they lowered specially designed long-handled tools into a flanged opening, 2⅛ in. in diameter, at the top of the vessel. Then, cutting torches and reamers, operated by delicate levers, rounded out the irregular-shaped holes...
Every step of the repair job was a novel and ticklish problem. Parts of the core that stood in the way were cut up and extricated on the points of slender spikes, all by remote control because of their radioactivity. The deadly inside of the reactor was invisible to direct observation, but long periscopes, manipulated through a 3-in. opening in the blanket around the core, gave a clear view of the melted spots. All these lights, probes and gauges had to be specially designed, and they were tested on an accurate mockup of the reactor before the atom...