On 11/26/06, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The World Trade Centre was also built to withstand the impact of a > commercial airliner.
No, it wasn't. It was designed to burn slowly and not collapse right away. Asbestos insulation was key to this design. Part way through the construction asbestos was taken off the table and an inferior insulation was used to finish the building. > > The world is also full of the crumbled ruins of buildings designed to > withstand earthquakes, but which collapsed when the earthquakes > actually happened. Either because the design was wrong, or because > they were built by corrupt contractors who bribed the politicians and > inspectors, or all of the above. Nuclear reactor facilities are built like fortresses. The structures are reinforced concrete, the perimeters are designed to be defended, and the security teams are typically equipped to repel anything short of a determined military strike. (Whether they're trained to do that is another story....) Add to that, modern cores are encased in a multi-layered "tank" (steel and lead, primarily) that can withstand much more agitation than even the building it resides in. All US reactors also incorporate a SCRAM switch. This switch triggers automatically if the core temperature gets too high, and in some cases can trigger if the core temperature is increasing too quickly. The operator can also trigger the switch manually. This results in the rods being driven all the way into the core and slowing reaction to a minimum. In this state the core is safe even without coolant being circulated. Chernobyl style accidents are damn near impossible with modern reactors. -- Scott Loveless http://www.twosixteen.com Shoot more film! -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
