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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Christmas Light
’Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house
No electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged by the chimney with care
With the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
C. V. Chester, R. O. Chester
Nuclear Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | March 1974 | Pages 190-200
Technical Paper | Reactor Siting | doi.org/10.13182/NT74-A31389
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A pot-type Liquid-Metal-Cooled Fast Breeder Reactor was analyzed as a civil defense problem in a nuclear attack. In order for the core inventory of fission products to add significantly to casualties, they must be promptly released from the reactor structure due to blast from the weapon, and added to the fallout. The analysis of the interaction of weapon effects with the significant elements of the structure surrounding the reactors was checked by high explosive tests on scale models. It is concluded that for prompt ejection of the core, a megaton-range weapon must be detonated close enough so that the reactor is in the crater, or that an air shock greater than 170 atm impacts at near normal incidence the fueling cell wall crossing the sodium tank. For megaton weapons, delivery accuracy substantially exceeding that ascribed to deployed strategic delivery systems would be required.