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TechNickL t1_jckiy4y wrote

Reply to comment by jennybearyay in Rolls-Royce secures funds to develop nuclear reactor for moon base by Vailhem

Realistically, it won't.

a) reactor meltdowns don't cause nuclear explosions like a bomb does. They just get radiation all over the place. Chernobyl was a pressure explosion, and it was an exceptionally badly built and operated reactor.

b) the amount of radiation that the sun puts out that hits the earth is orders of magnitude greater than anything man-made could ever create.

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jennybearyay t1_jckqcvj wrote

Thanks for the reply. Not sure why my question was downvoted. I'm not a scientist and was curious lol.

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TechNickL t1_jcl2b95 wrote

On reddit, you're not allowed to ask questions if too many people think the answer is obvious.

Score is meaningless anyway.

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jennybearyay t1_jcl9cie wrote

Yeah, I don't care about the karma. It's just interesting what people will downvote. I don't know much about nuclear science so I don't see how the answer is obvious enough to get mad someone asked 😂

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TechNickL t1_jcldie9 wrote

Don't think of it as mad, think of it as passive-aggressive ego padding lol

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na_gooyin t1_jckkvvc wrote

Following up on point A, let’s say hypothetically the reactor does have a meltdown and we have another Chernobyl disaster. How will we suppress a reactor meltdown were it to happen in space, away from the equipment and resources we have down here on earth? How will it affect future missions to the moon?

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NotShey t1_jcknk77 wrote

It won't. The particular structure the reactor is housed in will be ruined, but um... it's the moon, it's already a mildly radioactive wasteland. If they can, likely stick it in the bottom of a crater a couple miles from the main base, so even if the whole thing melts down, the base will be fine.

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jormungandrsjig t1_jcknp7i wrote

> Following up on point A, let’s say hypothetically the reactor does have a meltdown and we have another Chernobyl disaster. How will we suppress a reactor meltdown were it to happen in space, away from the equipment and resources we have down here on earth? How will it affect future missions to the moon?

Use an oversized spatula and flip it off the surface into interstellar space.

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