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Velocirooster adminensis :bc: (theropologist@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 14-Mar-2025 09:49:19 JST Velocirooster adminensis :bc:

I get it, Hergé, I got a little too into nuclear reactors once too...
In conversation about 5 months ago from beige.party permalink
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1. An excerpt from Destination Moon by Hergé. Tin Tin, Professor Calculus, and Captain Haddock are dressed in orange hazmat suits and Calculus is explaining the nuclear reactor he uses to make plutonium to fuel his nuclear powered rocket. Calculus: Good. Now, back to the pile again. At this moment they are putting in a rod of uranium: uranium containing about 99% of U.238 and only 1% of radioactive U.235. Now what happens when the uranium is inside the pile? Calculus: Well...When an atom of U.235 splits, it releases two or three neutrons. One or other of these will be absorbed by and atom of U.238, which will thus be transmuted to plutonium...But those other neutrons...where will they go?... Haddock: Yes...I'm worried about them...
  https://media.beige.party/media_attachments/files/114/012/546/948/708/962/original/58631386babbf93e.jpg
2. Continuing the comic from the first image: Calculus: Restricted by the graphite that surrounds them, they continue through the pile, and end up by hitting one of the rare atoms of U.235. These in turn split and release two or three neutrons again...You see? Haddock: Of course! It's child's play... Calculus: But this process has to be controlled. Thanks to the cadmium rods which absorb a proportion of the neutrons, we can regulate the working of the pile as we wish.
  https://media.beige.party/media_attachments/files/114/012/548/072/314/167/original/81de0150c9f911b9.jpg

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