OC: Want to learn about nuclear power?

I'd uploaded all this once before but thought I'd give it another shot.

I drew this in 2010 while I was getting a related Associate's degree, to answer some questions friends had.

Background dose in the United States could be as low as 350 or as high as 600 or more, depending on your altitude, soil composition, and whether you are a smoker. The highest background radiation is Ramsar, Iran with 20,000. The lowest background? Submarine crews under polar ice caps.

Atoms over 240 will fission. Maybe. Depends on the isotope and how they're feeling that day, it's complicated.

If it was a one for one exchange (one neutron breaks an atom and one neutron goes stray from that), it would just be an interesting science trick. It's that we get two or three neutrons for every split atom that makes it a viable power source.

We're not talking about CANDUs or anything because this is what I know, and because BWR and PWRs can be found worldwide.

Boiling water reactors have a phenomenon called "Sky shine." Basically, if you are right outside the containment buildings on a cloudy or foggy day, gamma will bounce off water and hit you.
It's not a lot, but it's enough that people who work in the offices may not be allowed to have radiation-tracking badges because they leave them in their desks and artificially add to the plant's year long dose.

That steam bubble, teamed up with a faulty indicator light, caused TMI2.

Replacing a steam generator is one of the largest, if not the largest, maintenance tasks that a nuclear power plant will ever attempt. It involves punching a hole through the dome of containment.

Replacement of steam generators that ended up being faulty from the manufacturer, and failing after only a few years, is what shut down SONGS in California. It's that expensive.

The shape of containment will tell you what the plant is/how old it is.

Generally speaking, you will only see the 'box' containment for a BWR as it's an outer shell over true containment, which is kind of an inverted lightbulb shape (the drywell).

The farthest right is the most recent generation of PWR, and is a combination of the middle two.

A lot of people bitch about the plane test because it wasn't a full building and the wall wasn't properly secure blah blah blah because apparently slamming a plane into a wall and having it bounce off isn't impressive enough.

Some containments operate in IDLH environments when at power because they pipe in cover gasses, like nitrogen, to remove the breatheable oxygen (why? hydrogen).

There are two key points for whether radiation dose will hurt you. Time, and amount.

My favorite page of the entire thing.

Some ion chambers are entirely mute, no speakers.
Some tick. Some beep. Some hiss static at you. It's brand and model dependent. Friskers and teletectors always make noise unless you turn the volume off and even then the alarm setpoints will usually still scream.

The two numbers here are 400 and 600 REM.

400 is LD 50/30. Half the population dead in thirty days with no medical intervention. 600 is LD 100/30. Everything dead in thirty days with no medical intervention. Both of these numbers are for ACUTE dose, IE, all dose given in a very short time.

I mean think about this. An atom is so pissed off at its configuration it completely removes four pieces of itself and changes elements by two places.
Whoa.

Alpha gon fuck you up bruh. It's got basically zero range but with a +2 charge it will ionize all your shit.

Interestingly enough, you can not shield beta with heavy elements because you will end up with more radiation after. Google "bremsstrahlung".

They used to say you could determine x-ray vs gamma based on energy level. Nay so, they can have matching energy levels. So really you have to determine it based on what's letting the photon off.

Tungsten impregnated silicone is the new gold standard for dense shielding. Expensive, but nontoxic and can be molded to fit pipes exactly, so zero gaps.

With no charge, the only thing that will slow down neutron radiation is hitting something of similar size. If it collides with a heavy nucleus it'll probably just bounce away and barely slow down. Giving it a bunch of hydrogen to bounce off of makes it spend its energy and stop.

This is also how it hurts humans. It basically batters your shit apart by force. In the case of water, it'll break your H20 into H and OH. And that OH changes the acidity level.

This is my job. Also telling people to stop that.

We do have vests. You don't want to wear them. And using negative pressure respirators is very rare, and generally done by painters.

And now some comics about me at work.

You didn't see the bright yellow and pink postings. Really.

Training. Welcome to power point hell.

FIELD TRIP

It turns out that if you call Sherwin-Williams and try to order paint by the drum they get really really curious about what you're painting.

BINK

Teledose tracking screens have a hypnotic effect.

Don't ask me this.

Protective clothing!

Personally I prefer OREX over laundered.

We're all mad here.

True story bruh.

Fun with plant PA systems.

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT

Hey Ops could we not drown Decon?

But seriously if Decon runs, follow, they don't spook easy.

Word for word verbatim.

We don't really care about your schedule, Operations. It's not our job to care.

Please stop.

Oh god. Please stop.