He's right. Reactor grade uranium is only 3-4% U-235. To get a nuclear explosion you need at least 40% U-235. The explosions they have has so far have been hydrogen gas. Some radiation can come from that but it is small.

Reed College has an on-campus nuclear reactor. Did NOT know that...

none: you are not alone...lots of folks don't know about the nuke reactor at Reed. They keep it pretty quiet.
Of course when the Cascadian subduction zone quake hits...who knows what will happen?

'Tis true, 'tis true! Home to the Renn Fayre doth have its own atomic pyle!

Renn Fayre + On-Campus Nuclear Reactor = __________________

I've known about it for years. The knowledge has often brought me to speculate about elite "green" activism.

Don't think that it is cognitive dissonance so much as it is about an unfounded self-confidence that simply does not admit self examination, rather like NPR.

Those "young turks" at NPR are (were) there for 40 years. Often they passed the baton to their children and the friends of their children. Reminded me of the old Institutional Revolutionary Party in Mexico.

Both the school and the public broadcasting creature have a whiff of the French branch of the Bourbons.

From Reed's website: "The Reed Research Reactor was established in 1968 and is the only reactor operated primarily by undergraduates."

Scary.

As I said a couple of days ago:

They're dumping sea-water onto the reactor, which may cool it down (though you may want to talk to some Reedies about that).

I think it's safe to say that they've moved to desperation tactics.

It's interesting that the small-scale systems developed here in Oreygun wouldn't suffer problems related to power outage; they shut down as soon as power goes off. Of course, they're nuclear. So they're illegal in the USA.

We'll just stick with old tech, thanks.
Posted by Max | March 12, 2011 2:57 PM

I assumed the Reed reactor was common knowledge.

I am working on converting my car to run on a small nuclear reactor. See you around!

The threat here is not a nuclear explosion as occurs with an atomic bomb. It's more like a huge "dirty bomb," going off for a long time, contamination of the groundwater, and other ecological consequences that no one has told us about (or perhaps even thought about).

Interesting point about the ground water there, Jack.

Isn't the source of Crystal Springs right about there? I do believe it flows into the Willamette and has (or is) undergoing a habitat restoration.

"Reed College has an on-campus nuclear reactor. Did NOT know that..."

Yeah! And Virgil Earp is buried just across the river.

Jack,

Even the lefties over at Slate say don't overreact (yet).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20110314/pl_yblog_exclusive/analysis-lets-cool-the-political-meltdown-over-japans-damaged-nuclear-power-plants

Reed isn't the only college in the state with a nuclear reactor. Oregon State University also have a nuclear reactor for research in Corvallis.

Reed College may, however, have the only nuclear reactor in a government-sanctioned "Nuclear Free Zone" - assuming that designation survived the end of the Cold War.

Even the lefties over at Slate say don't overreact (yet).

To us, this is not political any more. This is going to be a tragedy at least as heavy as Chernobyl. Different in the particulars, but at least as heavy in the bottom line.

Plutonium is named after the god of hell. There's a reason for that.

Reed College has an on-campus nuclear reactor. Did NOT know that...

Yup, learn all about it here.

OSU also has one. As does Washington State University.

There is a massive difference between a research reactor, and a nuclear generating station. Orders of magnitude difference in thermal power (250 kWt for a TRIGA-1 research reactor like Reed has, or 1.1 MWt for the TRIGA-2 that Oregon State has; the BWRs that Japan is currently having trouble with are rated at something like 2700 MWt). One runs for months at a time, when the other is only operated for hours depending on the neutron flux necessary for the experiment, etc.

There's enough speculation and fear already, must we create more?

There's enough speculation and fear already, must we create more?

Apparently.