Nuclear reactor meltdown would be history
Normally nuclear(1) reactor contains two types of elements. The control rods, which are used to adjust the power of the nuclear fission. And fuel rods where is the nuclear fissile material. But the new nuclear reactors would contain the control-material inside the fuel rods. That material would be packed in the fuel rods. The material that is used in the fuel rods is made to stand the extreme heat, and neutron bombardment.
The problem is that if the fission would turn out of control, those rods are causing that the graphite inside the control rods cannot touch the fissile material. So that is the reason, why there are plans to position the balls in the middle of fissile material(2). The purpose of those balls would be to replace the control rods and make the graphite easier to contact with fissile material and stop the reaction in the cases, where other control systems are out of use.
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Description of those balls, which are called as (Tristructural isotropic particle) ("Triso")
"Wired reports that the poppy-seed-sized balls, dubbed Triso fuel (Tristructural isotropic particle), are low enriched uranium and oxygen surrounded by a shell of graphite and ceramic. The design has been around since the 1960s, but so far they’ve been too expensive to make and couldn’t meet the high demands of most nuclear power plants."
(https://futurism.com/radioactive-gobstoppers-could-stop-the-next-nuclear-reactor-meltdown)
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When we are facing things like nuclear reactor meltdown, we must remember that there is one thing, what can stop the fission reactor, and that thing is carbon or more accurate saying graphite. The thing in the reactor meltdown is that the carbon, which is normally in the control rods of the nuclear elements cannot make contact with the fissile nuclear material. The thing is that if the carbon would be dropped in the fissile material, what temperature is very high, that causes a catastrophe, where the carbon starts to burn. So how to make graphite contact with nuclear material in the fuel rods?
One of the simplest ideas is to make the small balls, what would be melt when the temperature is too high, and then those things would release the carbon inside the fuel. That would end the nuclear fission. Another version is to store the carbon over the nuclear reactors and then just drop it in the reactor along with extreme cold gas like liquid nitrogen or carbon dioxide. The purpose of the gas is to deny contact with carbon and oxygen.
And the second thing is to down the temperature. The purpose is that the graphite would end the nuclear reaction, and then the robots can cut the damaged nuclear element to the bites, which are carried to the different chambers. There the microscopes and other things can search the things, which are causing the problem. If those carbon balls would be inside the fissile material, that material must be rebred, which means that the carbon would be removed from the fissile material.
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reactor
(2) https://futurism.com/radioactive-gobstoppers-could-stop-the-next-nuclear-reactor-meltdown
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