of the control rod material

for it to effectively trap neutrons

otherwise theres no point

why would you ? the rods would be usless

If it's in the floor, then mass isn't a problem. Put whatever you want in there.

Keep coolant flowing.

The water is also about slowing reaction

uh mass is the problem dude

it is a closed system

i dont think you know how nukes are arranged

fuel rods are in a tight lattice

you can't use water from the enviornment

in the core

a very tight one

and thus any closed system only has so much water

not a whole lot of room

that water will boil off

PV=nRT

steam creates pressure

and blow the closed coolant system

Why not give it room to do exactly that? Turn to steam, and go somewhere else.

This is why they build them inside giant concreate spheres so that if it does go boom the radiation cannot escape

uh

if it turns into steam

cause it is about 1000x an expansion

it cant cool down your shit anymore

lol

not to mention having superheated steam

exploding your reactor

isnt exactly a good thing

The steam explosion is the problem. If you can avoid that, a meltdown just fucks up you reactor and requires a lengthy repair process.

so for every 1cubic ft of watter, you'd need 1000cuft to hold the steam at the same pressure

no

just tell it to chill

a real meltdown

the rods

Uranium gets hot enough to melt.

will evaporate the coolant

they will

melt through the concrete

yeah, the rods are also a problem