yea i understand that now, I meant to say i was referring back to the cold war era. It understandable that they would use similar or same rules, kind of of a universal technology where one place say russia would use something similar to here in Canada but just different reactor designs.

Thats really odd, i was speaking to my engineering freind last night at the hockey game, and In Canada we only have two major areas of study for nuclear power, are there many places in the us? ANd wow, I would have thought you required quite a nit of thoery behind you in order to work in a plant other then the janitor and even he/she must have special training.

80 hours sounds about right, I dont think i could handle that. Haha yea me and the pharmacist I work with were talking about military pharmacist, pay isnt that great compared to the private sector but NOTHINg will ever matcht he resume you make after the military.

On a more thread related focus, They let us take the jeep for a extended test drive and I noticed one nasty falw in it, the braking. Beaing as you have done some offroad mods, is this normal, They work awesome at low speeds ( Im assuming the engineers designed it this way for off road use on rocks and what not) but traveling 70 km/h up and then trying to stop caan be a duanting task. What have you used for truck brake, is baer, ebc still sound?

 

DIsco, truck brakes are completely different than your Jaguar brakes. Keep in mind that you are still pushing around 4,000 pounds on much larger diameter tires. The large diameter tires are what kill the braking systems. SO, yes, what you are feeling is somewhat normal. But, without test driving the Jeep, can't say if it is excessive or not. Stepping up to say a 4 caliper setup might help, but for the most part, for what it costs, you are not going to get that much better braking. Imagine what I go through with my Expedition (6,000 pound truck with 37" mud tires). I just leave some extra room and have a very strong left foot/leg.

As for special training, yes, you need to have an understanding of how radiation affects the body, but that is generic training and if you can understand chemistry, this will be a walk in the park. As for understanding how to handle the coolant (which is nothing more than pure water with a radioactive part to it), I handle the coolant at times. NOt that big of a deal.

As for schooling, a lot of the major colleges in the US have nuclear programs and a lot of those have their own test reactor (look up pulse reactors). These are not meant to produce sustained power. They shoot up from 0 to 100% in a second and then immediately shut themselves back down. I know one of the schools that has a test reactor is the Ohio State University. It seems that Illinois State University does too. I'm sure there are others. Look at the iaea.org website. That will tell you a lot about reactor locations in the world. They will also have a lot of information that you may find informative.

 

RPI has a test reactor as does UMass Lowell as well as MIT.

The RPI reactor is interesting, it is on the site of the old American Locomotive Company that was one of the big train-engine manufactures. At the end of WWII (i.e, the beginning of the Atomic Age... ;-) they began experimenting with Nuclear power with the expectation of there being a market for atomic trains. No trains, no ALCO, but the test reactor remains.

When I was a NucEng student and took classes there we learned that the fuel was fully enriched (ya, the stuff they make weapons out of). The NRC replaced that fuel sometime in the 80s...

Needless to say a reactor with fully enriched fuel goes critical really easily...
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Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

pab, I never found running highly enriched reactors all that hard to get started up. Did it for 20 years in the Navy. Granted, the reactors where I work now only use slightly enriched fuel, but they work on a completely different concept and this plant takes forever to get up and into the useful power range.

But then, when you are sitting off the coast of where you are not supposed to be, having the reactor trip offline is a bad thing and you want to be able to get it back up in no time.

 

You work at Calvert Cliffs? The company I used to work for designed that reactor.
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Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

pab, yes, I work there. I went to your facilities up in Pittsburgh. that was a neat facility. I got to see all the military goodies that you guys play with. I contemplated getting a job there. BUt I am making a lot more money now compared to what I would have more than likely made there.

 

Wrong company, I worked for Combustion Engineering the folks that supplied the reactor itself. CE is gone now, but the nuclear fuel supply organization is owned by Westinghouse now.
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Jaguar: Grace, Pace, and Space - Sir William Lyons

 

I didn't read everything else in the thread but if someone else hasn't said it already.... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't lower a Wrangler!!! That's like the equivalent of buying a GTR, throwing away the stock R compound tires and swapping on a set of economy tires. Something like that.

 

pab, we are switching over to Areva fuel now. So, even Westinghouse is out of the picture now. In another few cycles, we should have all the westinghouse fuel out of the cores too. Gotta love the french.