Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment Re:Critical (Score 5, Informative) 611

That's exactly right, but people prefer letting the papers think for them. In a nutshell: If the thing didn't go critical, it would not be a viable power source. Criticality is the condition where, on average, each fission begets one further fission--this is how a constant power level is maintained. Further, supercriticality corresponds to increasing power output, and subcriticality to decreasing output. All of these conditions are necessary for the reactor to respond to changing power demands, and none of them is inherently bad.

Slashdot Top Deals

"There... I've run rings 'round you logically" -- Monty Python's Flying Circus

Working...