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For whatever power level the reactor is currently operating at, a certain amount of enthalpy is present in the coolant. This enthalpy is proportional to temperature, therefore, the hotter the plant, the higher the pressure must be maintained to prevent boiling. When pressure drops to the saturation point, dryout in the coolant channels will occur.
A coolant is a substance, typically liquid, that is used to reduce or regulate the temperature of a system. An ideal coolant has high thermal capacity, low viscosity, is low-cost, non-toxic, chemically inert and neither causes nor promotes corrosion of the cooling system. Some applications also require the coolant to be an electrical insulator.
In extreme cases it can be seen as a film or skin on the surface of the coolant or as floating drops of oil. Skimmers are used to separate the tramp oil from the coolant. These are typically slowly rotating vertical discs that are partially submerged below the coolant level in the main reservoir.
This may simply drain onto the ground or be collected in a vented container which remains at atmospheric pressure. When the engine is switched off, the cooling system cools and liquid level drops. In some cases where excess liquid has been collected in a bottle, this may be 'sucked' back into the main coolant circuit. In other cases, it is not.
Liquid nitrogen's efficiency as a coolant is limited by the fact that it boils immediately on contact with a warmer object, enveloping the object in an insulating layer of nitrogen gas bubbles. This effect, known as the Leidenfrost effect, occurs when any liquid comes in contact with a surface which is significantly hotter than its boiling point.
Since the reactor coolant system is completely flooded during normal operations, there is no point in monitoring coolant level in any of the other vessels. But early awareness of a reduction of coolant level (or a loss of coolant) is important to the safety of the reactor core. The pressurizer is deliberately located high in the reactor ...
A DuPont R-134a refrigerant. A refrigerant is a working fluid used in cooling, heating or reverse cooling and heating of air conditioning systems and heat pumps where they undergo a repeated phase transition from a liquid to a gas and back again.
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 occurred due to a loss-of-coolant accident. The circuits that provided electrical power to the coolant pumps failed causing a loss-of-core-cooling that was critical for the removal of residual decay heat which is produced even after active reactors are shut down and nuclear fission has ceased.