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Remember, the Japanese reactors that are having problems were built in the 60's and 70's. The Trident subs, Ohio was the first, construction started in 1976. Natural circulation was new for the navy. I don't know for sure, but I believe they went with natural circulation to reduce noise (no coolant pumps running, they had them to startup, then would shut them down). On commercial power plants they wanted to make steam, and alot of it, so they used pumps to move the coolant, didn't care about noise. Must have figured they had enough ways to cool the core in an emergency. I agree with you, that for safety reasons, that natural circulation would be better. Maybe the newer designs have it, I don't know.
For the record I was on a 640 class. My brother was on 2 different tridents, so I know only what he has told me about them.
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1972 Dodge Challenger
2011 Raptor
2013 Road King 110th Anniversary
2014 Corvette Z51 stingray
Single after 27 years married.
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