Core Design
The core was contained in a 117 cm (46 in) long mild steel cylinder which was 15.2 cm (6.0 in) inside diameter and 0.6 cm (0.24 in) thick. The fuel assembly was 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter 14 cm (5.5 in) tall and contained 55 fuel elements. Each fuel element was composed of δ-phase plutonium-239. They were each 1.64 cm (0.65 in) diameter and 14 cm (5.5 in) long. The fuel elements were clad in 0.5 millimetres (0.020 in) thick plain carbon steel. The core was located at the bottom of the steel cylinder.
The core was cooled by liquid mercury. The maximum output was 25 kW of thermal energy. The mercury was circulated through the core and out to a mercury-water heat exchanger at a maximum flow rate of 0.15 L/s by an induction type electromagnetic pump which had no moving parts.
Read more about this topic: Clementine (nuclear Reactor)
Famous quotes containing the words core and/or design:
“The threadbare trees, so poor and thin,
They are no wealthier than I;
But with as brave a core within
They rear their boughs to the October sky.
Poor knights they are which bravely wait
The charge of Winter’s cavalry,
Keeping a simple Roman state,
Discumbered of their Persian luxury.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)