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Remembering Antarctica's Nuclear Past with 'Nukey Poo'

posted by mrpg on Tuesday July 24 2018, @03:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the pu dept.

"exec" writes:

We think of Antarctica as a place to protect. It's "pristine", "remote" and "untouched". (Although a recent discovery reveals it's less isolated from the world than previously thought.)

But it wasn't always this way. Between 1961 and 1972 McMurdo Station was home to Antarctica's first and only portable nuclear reactor, known as PM-3A, or "Nukey Poo." The little-known story of Nukey Poo offers a useful lens through which to examine two ways of valuing the far south: as a place to develop, or a place to protect.

[...] "Nukey Poo" began producing power for the McMurdo station in 1962, and was refuelled for the first time in 1964. A decade later, the optimism around the plant had faded. The 25-man team required to run the plant was expensive, while concerns over possible chloride stress corrosion emerged after the discovery of wet insulation during a routine inspection. Both costs and environmental impacts conspired to close the plant in September 1972.

https://phys.org/news/2018-07-antarctica-nuclear-nukey-poo.html

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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:48PM (3 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday July 24 2018, @05:48PM (#711797) Journal

    It still can work, it just needs to be 1) passive-safe and 2) use a fission chain you can't make bombs out of. In other words, thorium.

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  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:05PM (1 child)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:05PM (#711808) Journal

    It needs one further component: A way to safely dispose of the spent fuel. Just like the Thorium reactors, ways theoretically exist, but they've never been proven.

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    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:07PM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:07PM (#711831) Journal

      IIRC thorium waste stays "hot" for a few centuries, but not tens of thousands of years. Standard uranium-reactor waste disposal procedures should be more than enough.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @11:48PM (#712038)

    This one was fueled by U-235 at 93% enrichment.